ALL over the world yesterday, Teachers Day was marked in recognition of the significant role teachers play in the socio-economic development of countries, especially in the area of human resource training.
The celebration was also used to take stock of the achievements and successes chalked up over the years in the teaching field, the challenges facing the profession and the way forward.
The United Nations instituted the day to commemorate the establishment of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) as the arm of the world body specifically in charge of seeing to the educational needs of member nations.
Here in Ghana, the day was marked by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Tamale in the Northern Region. It is altogether fitting and proper that a day is set aside to celebrate the noble profession of teaching which, undoubtedly, everybody recognises as being very relevant to our national aspirations. But the question we ask is: After the celebration, what next?
Times were when the teacher (at whatever level of the educational ladder) was accorded so much respect that in our villages, they sat next to the chiefs during public functions and other important ceremonies. In those times, the economic circumstance of teachers was near ideal and they were counted among men and women of clout in the communities. Back then, parents actually encouraged their children to go into the teaching profession to raise the image of their families.
All that was in the distant past! Now the situation is different and teachers are a pale shadow of themselves, economically and socially. When the nation’s economic fortunes dwindled in the 1980s, nobody remembered the teacher and his meagre salary and poor conditions of service. Such is the terrible circumstance of the teacher now in terms of remuneration, accommodation, promotion and status that the teaching profession is considered to have the highest attrition rate in the country. Severe teacher shortage and poor service conditions are hampering efforts to provide every child with primary education in the country.
But, paradoxically, at the beginning of every academic year in September, parents and guardians are seen taking their children and wards to schools for admission. But do we ever spare a thought for the teacher and his circumstance? Do parents and guardians expect much from a teacher who cannot feed his family, clothe himself and his dependants and provide a roof over his head?
The Daily Graphic cannot but agree with the immediate Past President of GNAT, Mr Kwame Amo-Dako, who, while addressing the National GNAT Week in Koforidua on Tuesday, called on the government and other stakeholders in education to, as a matter of urgency, improve on the poor conditions of service of teachers in the country.
We think the need to do something about teachers’ salaries and other conditions is long overdue and so the time has come to take the bull by the horn if we want our educational system to produce materials who can take over the mantle of leadership in the future.
If the much-touted new educational reform is to make the expected impact, then the teacher should not continue to be sidelined in terms of remuneration. For, without a well-motivated teacher, school buildings and free food for pupils and students cannot, in themselves, bring about the desired output. The ends are competitive but the government can provide a better package for teachers relative to what pertains in the health sector now.
The Daily Graphic believes that all of us have to help to make the slogan: “If you can read this, thank a teacher” meaningful so far as our gratitude to the teacher is concerned. He must see our thankfulness in tangible terms, not some austere reward that awaits him in Heaven. That is if, in his desperate state, he makes it there at all!
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