General News of Thursday, 18 January 2007

Source: ransford k. agyemang, classic fm, techiman

A call on govt to export teachers

The national president of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr. Kwaku Adjei has made a passionate appeal to the central government and all those leading bodies that played a crucial role in the nation’s education to re-consider exporting teachers to needy African and the western countries.

According him this system though technical had already worked in other countries, Ghana as a third world nation stand a better chance of taking advantage of it. he said since the development of human resources is one of the possible means of mending debris of a developing country, authorities in Ghana through education could make a giant strike by selling out some of her brain sons and daughters to needy countries.

Mr. Adjei explained that this could be one of the remedies in the crusade against brain drain at the teaching sector. He said if this mechanism is practiced it would add to the nation’s foreign earnings, there by giving the government’s enough money to trained more teachers back home. The national president was quoted as saying ‘time has come for Ghana to take advantage of opportunities to the benefit of posterity’.

The educationist lamented that Ghana cannot continue to be tight lipped for other countries to benefit from her trained human resources to develop the minds of their country men and women without paying a penny. He expressed optimism that the chalk fraternity in this country is one of the best that any develop country could boost of. Speaking in an interview with Classic News, Mr. Adjei said because formal education is the kingpin of human resources , the government should not drag its feet on educational related issues though much has so far been done, there is still more work to be done in order to achieve a desirable results. He commended the central government for the educational structures put in place and appealed to the policy makers to improve the working conditions of teachers and other educational related bodies in Ghana.

The national president charged on teachers in Ghana particularly those in deprived areas to put up their maximum best since by so doing they could demand for better condition of services and other necessities. This he said when done to the fullest would set the platform for the teachers to win the sympathy of Ghanaians when the need arises. Additional call was made to the president, John Agyekum Kufuor to make education the top most priority of the nation in his last days, stating it is the surest way to redeem the country from wallowing in abject poverty which has over the years being seen as the hall mark of African countries.

The national GNAT president who is the headmaster of Nkoranza secondary technical school revealed that currently over ¢6.5b GETFUND project has been started for the school and its completion would improve academic activities on the part of students. He mentioned that the on going projects as a dinning hall complex -¢2.5b, and ¢4b girls dormitory to house up to 600 girls not forgetting an ultra modern library block to be financed by Nicholas Abeam Danso, managing director of Ghana Link , based in Accra. The headmaster told this reporter that the library is yet to be estimated.

On the girls’ dormitory, Mr. Adjei stated emphatically that plans are far advanced for it to be completed in September this year. Meanwhile the dinning hall is also expected to be completed in January 2008. he praised the frantic efforts made by authorities to enroll more girls in school but hastened that if care is not taking the country would in future launch similar campaign for boys, therefore it would be more appropriate for the two sexes to be given the due attention . He told this reporter that measures have been put in place for the vocational school attached to the school to become a full fledge technical institution.