Government must help restore dignity to teaching profession – Former Head-teacher
Mr Emmanuel Tetteh Atteh, a former Head, Ga-Dangme Language Department, University of Cape Coast (UCC), has asked government to help restore dignity to the teaching profession.
He said threats by successive governments to recruit “people in the street” to replace teachers in response industrial actions had created the impression that teaching could be done by anybody hence lack of respect for teachers and the falling standards in education.
“Unlike in the remotest past, respect and support for the teaching profession has now ebbed so deep, making it unattractive, thereby affecting morale and standards generally”, he said.
Mr Atteh said this at the 10th graduation ceremony of the Ada College of Education (ADACOE), on the theme: “Towards making teaching a real profession” at Ada-Foah.
“Often when teachers embark on industrial action for improved service conditions, the powers that be, threaten them with the recruitment of people from the streets to replace them, instead of looking at the real issues”, he noted.
Mr Atteh lamented the high rate at which teachers were exiting the profession due to “frustration” and urged government to urgently re-look at the conditions of service of teachers and resource them to deliver.
“Many teachers today are frustrated and not committed to the job as they have to look elsewhere to meet life and family demands,” he said.
The former Lecturer suggested a “special teachers’ professional body” to oversee, regulate, control and grow the teaching profession into a “real profession” as the way forward.
Mr Atteh, an ADACOE Aluminus, commended the graduates and advised them to put up the best as modelers of characters for the future by abiding by the code of ethics of the teaching profession.
Mr Cephas Gbodakpui, Principal of the College said efforts were being made to fix infrastructure challenges on the campus.
He said through internally generated funds, the College was able to put up a two-unit staff bungalows with work progressing on a four-room extension to the girls dormitory.
Mr Gbodakpui said a GETFUND sponsored ICT centre had been completed but a six-unit lecture hall and renovation works on the Principal’s office had been abandoned by the Contractor.
In all, 549 graduates of the College, including 347 regular and 202 sandwich students, received Diploma Certificates in Education awarded by the University of Cape Coast.
Source: GNA