Two teacher unions – 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 ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system of education.
According to the unions, the proposal lacks merit and is not backed by research to compel a change in the current educational system.
But speaking to Citi News, 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.
“It 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.”
He also added that “there 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.”
“For 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,” the GNAT General Secretary argued.
For his part, Vice President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, described the proposal as “unnecessary” and “misplaced.”
According to him, the current system guarantees quality education, but admitted it needs increased investments to sustain its credibility.
“The 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.”
“Check 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,” Mr Carbonu argued.
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