Government should get out of teacher education

Ghana needs professionally trained
teachers who have gone through programs recognized for their unique features,
including their structure, partnerships, and curricular emphases – programs
with significant contributions to the theory and practice of teacher education
which are enhanced by a strong emphasis on pre-professional field experiences.
The new Ghanaian teacher needs both academic and professional preparation that
combines rigorous general education, subject matter specialization facets and
professional training.


To
achieve these there is
the need to review the caliber of personnel who are accepted for training and
preparation into the profession. The existing structure appears to be weak in
terms of selection of students for training into the profession. The
requirements for admission into a college of education is almost the same as
those for a university – a significant pass at the West African Secondary
School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). Those accepted into colleges of
education are given diplomas at the of their course work while those who attended
universities graduate with degrees. Why should students with the same
qualifications be made to pursue courses with different emphasis?

Consequently, after
a three-year stay in a
college of education, the teachers go ahead to be re-admitted into
degree-awarding institutions to eventually become degree holders. This explains
why Ghana Education Service (GES) is the only institution in the country that
gives study leave to a large number of its personnel every year. Available data
indicates that teachers on study leave peaked at 9,814 in 2000 and since then
averaged around 6,000. The situation has become so disturbing that GES has now
resorted to issuing quota for the number of teachers approved to proceed on
study leave every year nationwide. In 2006/07 the quota was 3,000. These
figures indicate a system that is sick and needs to be treated. Almost all
those granted study leave pursued various courses leading to a degree. If the
Cert A or diploma holding teacher was satisfied, would he go to a university
for a degree?

 It has been the intention of
almost every Ghanaian teacher to possess a first degree. If this is the
ultimate why then would government continue to spend resources on their
training when there are countless of graduates who wish to be teachers but for
whatever be the reason are denied the opportunity. Government should go for
graduates and spend less resources to train them to become teachers. By
bringing them in as college graduates government would not be burdened with the
constant demand for study leave with pay. It would also bring stability into
the system since almost none would be looking forward to upgrade himself/herself
as it exists now. Those who would go for advanced degrees would do so at their
own time and financial expense

The graduates already have
the required academic qualification to be teachers. All they needed would
possibly be a one year professional training to become accredited as teachers.
This one year training could be done through sandwich classes during the school
break periods at their own time and cost - that is for those who want to be
considered as professionals and qualify for positions and promotions. On the
other hand there could be a three-month intensive classroom academic work for
all the jargons needed to be a professional teacher to be followed by three
months of teaching practice.Â

Accepting only graduates
into the profession would make it easy to diversify the personnel into the
various aspects of the profession. The existing method of training adopts the
one size fits all approach for all teachers at the expense of the various
specializations “ Guidance and Counselling, Special Education, Early Childhood
Education;
Educational Psychologists, Administrators, Curriculum developing; subject
specialization and others more.

When government gets out of the training of
teachers, there would be enough funding available to give reasonable pay to
teachers or
competitive remuneration package for the profession. This would make teaching
attractive to those with
passion for the profession who had shun the initial call into the diploma awarding
institutions to become teachers. It would
also bring out the best in teachers by the exhibition of love and compassion
for the profession. Ghanaian students would
be the eventual winners since standards would
be raised in the long run.

Among other things, one of
the major requirements for the success of fee free senior high school (SHS)
education
in Ghana is the availability of professionally trained teachers. Available data
indicates that the Ghana Education Service (GES) has a teacher-deficit of about
60,000 throughout the country. The GES is unable to fill these vacancies
because of the low number of teachers that come out of the 38 colleges of
education every year. How then would the GES respond to the pressure that would
be exerted on the system by the fee free SHS so far as teachers are concerned? Â Â Â

On the other hand Ghana has
12 Public Universities, 64 Private Universities and 10 Polytechnic (Now
Technical Universities). These sum up to 86 Universities and each is producing
graduates every year. Combined these institutions send out about 65-70,000
graduates for the National Service Scheme (NSS). (Each graduate is required by
law to serve one year under the NSS). Since both the public and private sectors
are unable to absorb all of them after their NSS duties, they have become a
public burden. One area in the system that can absorb them in their numbers is
the teaching field.

The system has already overproduced graduates
and is unable to absorb them. Why would
the government spend resources to train someone for a diploma while somebody
had already been educated by a university for a degree at a relatively no cost
for the same teaching position? As part of its
commitment to employ the multitudes of unemployed university graduates in the
country, it would be prudent for the government to cease from the training of
teachers in its present form and depended on the universities for their
graduates.

For a while the payment of stipends (alawa)
for teacher-trainees has become a problem for the government. President Nkrumah
introduced it to woo people into the teaching profession. General Afrifa’s
National Liberation Council (NLC) cancelled it. The Rawlings’ administration
restored it and was maintained by Kuffour’s government only to be cancelled
again by the Prof. Mills regime. It became a campaign issue for both the 2012
and 2016 presidential elections. The On/Off again payment of alawa to the
students is a problem that needs to be tackled once and for all instead of the
ad hoc solutions proffered to it. A permanent solution would be the employment
of degree holders into the profession and the cessation of training of teachers
by the government. If you do not train them, you do not pay them alawa

Is the
government not discriminating against
teachers in terms of conversion of all tertiary institutions into degree
awarding ones? A case in point are the polytechnics. If anything at all the
polytechnics’ Higher National Diploma (HND) was almost the same as the diplomas
given to teachers. Effectively almost all the polytechnics are now awarding
degrees to their products. Why cannot the same be said about colleges of
education? Discrimination in any shape or form is disrespectful and dangerous.
The Government of Ghana should at least stop this type of discrimination, show
some respect to teachers by upgrading their minimum qualification to a degree
and their institutions to be at par with all tertiary institutions in the
country.

It is high time government paid attention to
the employment of college graduates to make university education more
meaningful and rewarding to those concerned. What is the purpose of encouraging
students to pursue higher education only to end up roaming in the streets
begging for peanuts or settling for crumbs? My argument is that government should
go for
university graduates as teachers and spend little or no resources to train them
as teachers and stop the “financial loss to the state.”

 Ghana Government should
get out of teacher
education!

OPANIN KWABENA MENSAH

NB: The same argument is
being made for the government to get out of the training of Nurses  Â