The Running mate of the opposition National Democratic, NDC, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang on Thursday afternoon met teachers the various teacher Unions in Eastern Region – Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU).
The meeting held at GNAT Hall was tailored to discuss matters of teacher welfare and improvement of quality education as captured in the NDC Manifesto.
Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang said the introduction of the double-track system is affecting quality education at the Senior High School level.
She said the justification for the introduction of the double-track policy is mediocrity blaming it on lack of proper planning in the implementation of the Free SHS Policy in general.
She said the Constitution of Ghana anticipated these challenges hence prescribed a progressively free Senior High School which the NDC subscribed to and started accordingly.
Addressing the various teacher unions of the various in Koforidua Thursday as part of her five-day tour of the Eastern Region, Prof. Jane Naana Opoku reiterated the commitment of the next NDC government to abolish the double track system by increasing access to infrastructure to accommodate students.
“California? Even there, it doesn’t affect everybody and they’ve been fighting very hard to remove it so here we are. So when we say we are going to abolish it that is what we mean. We mean it because it is needful. After all, we don’t believe that children should take turns schooling in this country. Ghana has a very good Education system it can get better .some of the interventions are not helpful we should remove them”
She mocked the ruling New Patriotic Party, NPP, for dishonestly misinterpreting the NDC promise to review the Free SHS policy to make it robust to mean cancel.
“I never knew review is such a complicated word and that it is even such an ambiguity. The review has only one meaning. How it got translated into canceled is something I’m also trying to understand”
Prof. Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang who is a former Education Minister also took a turn to explain some policies such as the validation of Teachers’ arrears which has led to legacy debt stating that the NDC was on course to clear the arrears of deserving teachers after validating their documents. She said the policy was to be introduced to because many of the employments were done by Education Directors without due process.
Copies of the NDC Manifesto were given to the Teacher Unions.
Among the entourage were Samuel Ofosu Ampofo -National Chairman of the NDC, Victor Smith, a former Ambassador to the UK, George Opare Addo, National Youth Organizer, Joseph Owusu Amankrah (Jowark), Okudzeto Ablakwa -former Education Minister among others.
Source: Mybrytfmonline/Obed Ansah
