We've cleared arrears of 70, 000 Teachers - Bawumia

he Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia has said government has cleared the arrears of 70, 000 teachers.

Addressing the 2018 Outstanding Teacher Awards held to commemorate the world Teachers day on the theme, The Right to Education Means Right to Qualified Teachers’, the second gentleman of the land said, “As we speak we have reduced that through the validation process to just 30,000 teachers so we are on course and should eliminate that soon.

Dr Bawumia noted that the NPP government’s policy on teachers has increasingly sought to address the welfare of teachers and upgrade the standard of their training. He stated that he has no doubt that the newly introduced teachers’ licensure exams “will raise the standard of the profession to be at par with others”.

“The aim of the licensure exams is to enable candidates acquire a professional license and prepare to meet the demands of the national teaching standard as well as the global standards of possessing the minimum knowledge, skills, values and attitude necessary to deliver effectively in schools,” he stated.

“No country can ensure quality education and ignore teachers,” he added. The vice president indicated that government was committed to increasing the training standards of teachers which is why the government is upgrading the Colleges of Education to University Colleges. He said, ‘’that game-changing move will make a Bachelor’s Degree the minimum requirement to teach at the basic level in Ghana.

Dr Bawumia added that the celebration of the ‘Teachers’ Day’ is to motivate the teachers to give off their best. At the event, Mr Nicholas Gborse won the Most Outstanding Teacher Prize at this year's National Best Teacher Award scheme which has been renamed and rebranded as the Ghana Teacher Prize.

Mr Gborse, is a teacher of the Bishop Herman College located at Kpando in the Volta Region. He is expected to receive a three-bedroom house and a GH¢5,000 endowment fund as part of his prize.