Professor Gabriel A. Teye, a former Vice Chancellor of the University for Development Studies (UDS) has stressed the need for the country to place a higher premium on the welfare of teachers.
He said teachers were national assets and must be valued.
“Teachers have first-hand knowledge of what works and what does not work. Therefore, their experience is an invaluable asset or resource in creating any meaningful educational system,” he stated.
Prof. Teye was speaking at the opening of a two-day symposium organized by the National Teaching Council (NTC) under the supervision of the Ministry of Education, for teachers across the country in preparation towards the Ghana Teacher Prize, slated for October 5, 2024.
Over 500 teachers, heads of schools, teacher union representatives and other stakeholders converged in Kumasi to participate in the symposium and the Teacher Prize event.
The symposium was a platform to interact with teachers on issues that affected them during service delivery, including their insurance policies, and promote socialization among teachers.
The theme for the 2024 Ghana Teacher Prize celebration is Valuing Teacher Voices: Towards a New Social Contract for Education.
Prof. Teye observed that despite the role teachers played in implementing policies and creating an environment for students to thrive in, teachers were often left out of decision-making.
By giving teachers a seat in decision-making, the gap between policy and practice could be bridged, he indicated.
Prof. Teye said education had moved from the transfer of knowledge from the teacher to the student to preparing students to fit in the rapidly evolving world by equipping them to be critical thinkers.
Therefore, he noted that, the call for a new social contract was necessary as the existing one was one-sided, “Putting unnecessary pressure on teachers.”
Prof. Teye defined a social contract as an agreement between different parties, where the role of each party and expectations of one another were clearly defined.
Prof. Kingsley Nyarko, Deputy Minister of Education in charge of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training, said empowering teachers was paramount in transforming the educational system.
He noted that the government embarked on a transformational digital agenda placing technology at the center of the Ghanaian educational systems.
Prof. Nyarko mentioned the establishment of Electronic Learning platforms, Digital Teacher Training and Capacity Building, Free SHS and ICT integration, and STEM and Robotic Education among others, as some of the initiatives to foster digitalization in education.
He applauded teachers for their hard work to ensure that students received quality education which would in future benefit the country.
