Mr. Sulemana Adama, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Tain Constituency in the Bono Region, has called for a national dialogue on the shortfalls in the nation’s educational sector to ensure progress.

“The educational sector is currently undergoing a difficult spell. In the last couple of years, our educational sector has seen so many changes that call for deep introspection,” he said.

Addressing the Tain District annual delegates’ congress of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) at Nsawkaw, Mr Adama said education remained the backbone of economic development and there was the need to address pertinent challenges in that sector.

He noted the rollout of the new curriculum at the basic level was not the best because it had several shortfalls which could affect academic progress, saying “even at the primary level, we don’t have the full complement of textbooks to make the new curriculum workable.”

Mr. Adama said the majority of teachers in the country did not go through vigorous orientation on the new curriculum and called on the GNAT to offer their expertise to help reform the education sector.

At the Senior High School level, the MP said the implementation of the Free Senior High School (FSHS) was having its toll on the quality of education, saying lack of infrastructure to commensurate with admissions remained a challenge.

Mr Adama said though the GNAT had played an enormous role in the nation’s educational evolvement since independence “if there is ever a time that the expertise and the skills set of GNAT are needed to bring back our enviable credentials in education that time is now”.

“The recent silence on the part of GNAT is becoming deafening and the country needs its largest teacher union to hold its government accountable for its choices.

“It is imperative to state that this inertia on the part of the various trade unions including GNAT does not only affect the quality of services from government and its organs and agencies but it also affects the welfare of its members”, the MP said.

Mr Adama, however, gave the assurance to do all things possible to make the educational enterprise comfortable for pupils, students and teachers in the District.