Teachers, the bedrock of our transformational education reforms – Bawumia

The Vice President, Dr. Mahamadu Bawumia, has celebrated the remarkable achievements chalked by Ghana’s teachers, describing them as the ‘bedrock’ of the ongoing reforms and massive investment in Ghana’s education sector since 2017.

Government, he pledged, will therefore continue to partner all stakeholders in education, particularly teachers, to ensure that the objective of producing graduates ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution is achieved.

Delivering a speech on behalf of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at the University of Development Studies (UDS) campus in Tamale on Wednesday, October 5, 2022 to climax activities marking this year’s World Teacher Day, Dr. Bawumia indicated that the Day presents an opportunity to put a spotlight on the critical responsibility teachers bear in ensuring that our children enjoy the right quality education.

“The government of President Akufo-Addo acknowledges the value of education to human development and nation building, hence our massive investment in our education system including our teachers. However, the massive investment in education will come to nothing if our teachers do not rise to the occasion and respond positively to the great vision of transforming our nation through education. It is a proven fact that no nation in the world has developed without a conscious investment in its education system and the teachers who deliver the education,” he noted.

“Teachers are profoundly essential to our world because they deliver education and as the world acknowledges that education is the most powerful weapon that fights poverty, insecurity, environmental degradation, gender and racial discrimination, diseases and many other human sufferings, it is important that those who deliver education are well acknowledged and appreciated.”

The Vice President continued: “Indeed, the theme for this year’s celebration, ‘The Transformation of Education Begins with Teachers’ synchronizes very well with Government’s education transformation agenda. Our education transformation agenda hinges on training our people to be creative, innovative, critical thinkers and technologically astute to lead our forward march towards the 4th industrial revolution.

“It is in the light of this that the Government has introduced the standard based curriculum that focuses on the four Rs – Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and cReativity which will lead to 21st century skills of critical thinking, innovation, collaboration, communication and problem-solving,” Dr. Bawumia stated.

Emphasizing the key role played by teachers in Government’s quest for accelerated development, the Vice President acknowledged that the success of the intentional and focused attention on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), massive investments to make technical vocational education and training (TVET) more attractive to learners, a target of achieving tertiary enrolment ratio of 40% by the year 2030, and the provision of more resources to the National Teaching Council in support of Government’s teacher regulation and professionalization policy are all dependent to a large extent, on the cooperation of teachers.

“All these strategies to use education to transform our nation can only happen when we have our teachers on our side. The teacher’s role is critical than any other in-school factor that influences education outcomes.

“The Government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo remains committed to our ‘Teacher First’ policy in ensuring that our teachers, who are central to any education reforms, are fully tooled, skilled and supported to deliver quality learning outcomes to support our development aspirations.”

The winner of the 2022 Ghana Teacher Prize, Stella Gyimaah Larbi of Adenta Community JHS received a house worth Ghs300,000, a scholarship to study abroad, an educational trip to Dubai, and accelerated promotion to the next rank, known as ‘Out of Turn Promotion.’

Other award winners received vehicles, educational trips abroad, and, in most cases, a scholarship to study in any public tertiary institution of their choice in Ghana. For the first time, the best non-teaching staff received a saloon car as part of the award.