Despite promises from the government to improve the welfare of teachers of public schools, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) believe little is being done to motivate teachers to work hard to help government achieve it’s educational goals.
In an interview with Peacefmoline.com, the Zonal Secretary for NAGRAT in the Brong Ahafo Region, Mr Stephen Acheampong, lamented over the poor state of Teachers’ Welfare, and asked government to take the payment of teachers motivation and other benefits seriously otherwise educational goals would not be met while teachers are not treated well.
He posited that successive governments have failed to give Ghanaian teachers the needed recognition in the country, which, to him, has been impeding the progress of education in several ways.
“Any reform government brings to the education sector, it is the teacher that suffers because we are at the bottom to see its success. There is no proper motivation for us. It is very sad that when we talk of our welfare, it is perceived as noise. Teachers need to be remunerated well to be able to deliver,”he noted.
Mr Acheampong, again, observed that the setbacks in the country’s education sector keeps on soaring because education workers’ needs are not attended to because they(teachers) are seen as people who can work without proper remuneration.
“When teachers are motivated to work, it should not be seen as freebies. That perception must be cleared. We teachers deserve whatever we have been asking government to give us.”
Mr Acheampong hastened to add that, the call was not to downplay whatever reforms the NPP-led government was bringing on board, but to remind government on the need to equally pay attention to teachers as the President, Nana Akufo-Addo, promised them before he was elected as President.