A New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration will seek to improve incentives to attract, train and retain more young professionals to reverse the 60,000 teacher deficit facing the country.

Nana Ato Arthur, NPP Parliamentary Candidate for Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem (KEEA) who announced this at this year’s World Teachers’ Day celebration at Elmina indicated that the shortage had resulted in the over stretching of the few teachers in the system.

The celebration on the theme the theme: “Take a stand for teachers” was marked with a “peace procession” through the Elmina Township.

Dr. Ato Arthur said figures from the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service estimates that there are currently about 240,000 registered teachers, 10 per cent of whom are untrained or pupil teachers.

He noted that Ghana’s education system is in crisis because, of every 100 children that start kindergarten, only 71 of them end up in primary school, only 65 to Junior High School, just 35 to Senior High School and only three end up at the University.

He said it was in the light of this that education is the topmost priority on the agenda of the NPP Presidential Candidate, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to help build a competent, confident and educated society where access to education will not be determined by the circumstances of one’s birth.

Dr. Nana Arthur said he shares Akufo-Addo’s vision of producing an “educated workforce” to facilitate a modern and competitive Ghanaian economy, adding that this could only be achieved through the churning out of quality teachers who deliver to educate all Ghanaians.

He said the theme for the celebration, conform to the plans of the NPP to improve education and the welfare of teachers with a rippling effect on the quality of students to be produced.

Dr. Nana Arthur expressed the hope that enhanced teacher training, monitoring and evaluation would result in better performance in schools as well as students’ results.

He pledged the NPP’s commitment to a peaceful election as it is the vision of the leadership to build a free, independent and prosperous nation governed under the rule of law.