The Teacher Trainees’ Association of Ghana (TTAG) has pleaded with the government not to sacrifice their welfare for the current economic and financial crisis in the country.

In their own words, “the innocent teacher trainee should not be used as a sacrificial lamb” to the overbearing economic hardship of the country by denying them their allowances.  

They said the allowances paid to the teacher trainees with feeding grants as a component for the various Colleges of Education, aimed at easing the huge financial burden on teacher trainees. Meanwhile, the allowances are still in arrears for over seven months, thereby compounding the financial burden on teacher trainees.

President of TTAG Jonathan Dzunu addressing the Association’s 26^th General Assembly dubbed “Teacher Education and Professionalism: The Present and Future” at Hohoe in the Volta region last week, said with the growing population of Ghana, more teachers would be needed and any policy decision with the tendency to bring a reduction in their admission into the Colleges of Education should not be countenanced and tolerated.

Already, he said some government agencies responsible for teacher professionalism, and motivation and others have lost touch with reality and have, therefore, neglected the plight of the trainees who form the bedrock of the country’s educational system.

“Looking at the current economic hardship in the country, you can imagine the difficulty students are going through, life on campus without allowance has become very unbearable for us,” he lamented. “Meanwhile, food shortages are likely to hit the colleges soon as a result of non-payment of allowances. The principals are complaining that the suppliers are not ready to supply them with food items because they owe them. A tough situation for the Principals.”

Licensure examination

Mr. Dzunu said available data shows that about 128,493 candidates have sat for the Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination, since its introduction in three years, and 88,061 (69%) have passed.

He added that so far about 84 candidates have written the exam five times and 372 candidates have written it four times but are yet to pass.

According to him, with the high number of candidates passing the exams, it would be prudent for the licensure examination to be incorporated as a component of the courses offered in the Colleges of Education.

Posting challenges

The teacher traineess’ president mentioned the language barrier as one of the posting challenges facing teachers, which needs serious attention. He said the language barrier is also a contributing factor to poor literacy and numeracy rate among pupils.   

“Evidence from limited scale literacy intervention in Ghana demonstrates that literacy rates can be improved through the implementation of bilingual transitional literacy programs at the early levels of primary school. Meaning that children learn to read in their mother tongue (L1) and also learn to speak English (L2),” he stressed.

Appeal

The TTAG president also appealed also called on the Teacher Unions to partner with the 46 Colleges of Education to establish hostel facilities for the students to augment the existing ones.

According to him, the current infrastructure challenge is affecting the academic works of most Colleges, since “these infrastructural challenges have dire consequences on the safety, academic progress and success of the colleges and study.”

To the government, he said, “For better teacher education, there is a need to equip the teacher with all relevant logistics, training and pedagogical skills among others to make him/her fit to deliver effectively in the classroom and beyond.”