Two teacher unions \u2013 the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), are strongly opposing the Ghana Charismatic Bishops Conference’s proposal for the country to return to the \u2018O\u2019 and \u2018A\u2019 level system of education.<\/p>\n
According to the unions, the proposal lacks merit and is not backed by research to compel a change in the current educational system.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”qn3uEl7owWaO7mu3wBTV9Wy1ODy9GfuO”]The Charismatic Bishops in a communiqu\u00e9<\/strong> <\/a><\/span>argued that, the current basic education system lacks the needed quality and integrity, and advocated for its replacement for guaranteed quality basic education.<\/p>\n But speaking to Citi News<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/strong>the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), David Ofori Acheampong, said the current system must be maintained but with the necessary improvement.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not an issue of five years or ten year duration, society is supposed to be dynamic so at certain times, we have to make certain changes. But the point is that, we can sacrifice quality at the expense of the changes that we have made. Over the years, the challenges that we have had is that, resource allocation to education has been poor.\u201d<\/p>\n He also added that \u201cthere is a whole issue of a language problem. We said that we should begin to teach our children from kindergarten to lower primary three in the local language.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFor instance in Accra, how many of the teachers in Accra can speak Ga to teach Ga at the local level, so the concepts of some of the topics can be grasped at that level… Let us give the children the opportunity that was given to us when we went to form one. That is what we should be talking about and not the number of years. I believe that those are the serious issues that we should be concerned with,\u201d the GNAT General Secretary argued.<\/p>\n Misplaced proposal <\/strong><\/p>\n For his part, Vice President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, described the proposal as \u201cunnecessary\u201d and \u201cmisplaced.\u201d<\/p>\n According to him, the current system guarantees quality education, but admitted it needs\u00a0increased investments to sustain its credibility.<\/p>\n \u201cThe first question I will ask is that, is it the system of education that brings quality? It is not. What brings out quality is teaching and quality learning. So for me, the call is absolutely a misplaced call that does not have grounding on any research.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCheck the number of students in the university coming out with first class, second class upper and honours these days. All these people are products of the senior high school system. If we have deficiency in quality, let us identify the reasons for that and it is not fault the system of education. So I think the call is absolutely unfounded,\u201d Mr Carbonu argued.<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Godwin A. Allotey & Franklin Badu Jnr\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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