By Esther Ohrt
Harvard Graduate School of Education

In a recent PISA study, an internationally recognized school ranking survey, Ghana ranked last among 76 nations around the world, specifically in the areas of science and mathematics. In addition, the national average for literacy is 58% as 4 out of 10 Ghanaians are unable to read in any language. Despite recent efforts to improve access to primary education, the overall quality of the Ghanaian education system remains gravely inadequate, primarily due to insufficient investment towards its teaching professionals.

With the abolishment of school fees, today, about 96% of Ghanaians students have access to primary education. Additional government educational initiatives include, providing students with free meals, supplying textbooks to schools, and establishing over 1,500 new learning institutions.

Although these accomplishments are noteworthy and commendable, only 51% of teachers are trained in the primary level and the teacher absenteeism rate is at an alarming 11%. In Ghana, a teacher is trained in one of the nation’s 38 teacher-training colleges. On average, about 9,000 teachers are certified annually. Sadly, every year, close to 10,000 of them abandon the profession due to poor service conditions and financial reasons.

The 2015 Education Budget centers on increasing quality, equity and accessibility. However, access to education seems to be the focus of the plan as most of the funds are allocated towards constructing schools, providing scholarships to girls and increasing literary programs. Although these are important objectives, it is meaningless to continue to build learning institutions and provide education resources to schools without having teachers who are equipped to instruct and provide quality teaching.

High performing countries have all relied on high quality teachers; many studies have shown that teacher quality, particularly the quality of the institution the teacher attended is a key factor that influences students’ academic performance.

Ghana can learn from Singapore, a country that has managed to transform its education system over the past five decades. Like Ghana, Singapore gained its independence from the British about 50 years ago and initially struggled to achieve economic and political stability. In order to transition from a developing to a developed country, the Singaporean government invested heavily in education, particularly on teachers.

In Singapore, teacher colleges accept the top 30% of its senior graduates and provides them with rigorous training and high compensation. This not only increases the value of the teaching profession but also allows for the brightest and well equipped to enter the classroom. In addition, teachers can progress in their fields by becoming mentors to new teachers and undertaking leadership roles in schools.

Unlike Singapore, in Ghana, the teaching profession is open to all graduates, irrespective of their undergraduate degree. To make matters worse, teachers are not only the worst paid workers in the public sector but are paid irregularly; this year about 50,000 teachers did not receive their salaries. How can a government invest in building more schools and teacher-training colleges if they cannot afford to pay their teachers? Rather, shouldn’t these resources be allocated to ensure that all educators receive proper training and compensation?

Without qualified and well-compensated teachers, progress towards a thriving, equitable, and transformative Ghanaian education system will remain wishful thinking at best. Therefore, a holistic approach to improving our education system needs to be developed by strengthening the capacity of the teaching profession.

Ghana, school buildings do not educate children, teachers do; it is time we made our teachers a priority!