7000 Teachers Quit Annually

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has expressed concern over the high attrition rate of teachers from the teaching service saying it is alarming as the number stands at approximately 7000 annually.

The Association appealed to President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo and all stakeholders to institute necessary measures to halt the problem.

Mr Afelibiek Ababu, the National Vice President of the Association, said this at the end of a one-week residential GNAT/CTF (Canadian Teachers Federation) Overseas 2018 in-service training programme at Berekum in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

It was to sharpen the content and pedagogical skills of participants to provide effective teaching strategies for quality education in the country and to address “seemingly difficult topics in the selected subjects”.

The annual but rotational event, held on regional basis and sponsored by GNAT, was the 56^th in the series and participated by 325 male and female teachers from the region.

Mr Ababu said “the situation is very disturbing, especially in the rural areas” and suggested that all incentives meant for teachers must be provided to motivate them to recommit themselves to the teaching service because “the nation’s development hinges on a well-educated and committed citizenry which can only be driven by teachers”.

GNAT, he said, has identified lack of accommodation in most under-served communities in the country as one of the contributory factors, saying this is forcing teachers to cover long distances to school and thus leading to missing of “contact hours”.

He said the inability of the under-served communities to attract and retain teachers is a contributory factor “no time for individual pupils”, saying the net result was poor academic performance which is affecting quality standard of education.

Mrs Gifty Apanbil, the Deputy General Secretary in-charge of Education and Professional Development of GNAT, said the unavailability of educational resources, especially physical infrastructure, teaching and learning materials, as well as resource for monitoring and evaluation are a great disadvantage to the rural communities.

She said the lack of proper policies for teacher deployment and retention was also causing the high rate of teacher attrition, resulting in increasing number of unqualified teachers in such areas.

These among other factors, Mrs Apanbil said, were militating against quality education delivery in some particular regions such as Upper West, Upper East, Northern and Brong-Ahafo.

GNA