By: Ɔpanyin Wireko
Concerned Teacher
University of Education, Winneba
Teachers have always been underrated by their employers as if they are not doing their work meanwhile some of them are trying all means possible to educate the children of this country. The popular saying that teachers’ pay is in heaven is not fair and that teachers also deserve better treatment on earth here. Just because their leaders have forgotten about their roles to dialogue for these hard-working teachers in this country doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve to be treated better.
In the midst of the pandemic, teachers at the various junior high schools in Ghana were asked to go back and prepare pupils in the basic level to write their Basic Education Certificate Examination. These teachers sacrifice their lives to prepare these students but the only motivation they could get was a hot meal per day. Meanwhile, their colleague’s teachers at the senior high school level where been motivated with something better, so why can’t the employer do the same by also given these teachers in the junior high school level some motivation for the good work they did for our basic school children?
The various unions in charge of this category of teachers in the junior high school have also refused to comment about this issue. When other unions like the Ghana nurses and midwife’s association worked hard and some of their members were been considered as front-line workers and something were paid to them for sacrificing their lives to move out of their house and go to work but teacher unions could not do the same and Education.com asked does that mean that these teachers were not sacrificing their lives for the young ones of this country?
Ghana Education Service (GES) who is the employer has also pretended not to listen to the pleading of these vulnerable teachers at junior high school, whenever they try to raise a concern about this issue that the government should motivate teachers who sacrificed their lives during the pandemic to prepare the form three pupils to write their basic education certificate examination the only thing Ghana education Service says is that, teachers were staying in the house during the pandemic. When everyone in this country knows how teachers in junior high school level in the midst of the pandemic went to school to prepare these pupils to write their exams. Just because the government does not want to motivate these hard-working teachers at the basic schools’ level that is why Ghana education Service has forgotten that some teachers were going to school during the pandemic.
wants government and Ghana education Service to give these teachers who sacrificed their lives during the pandemic to prepare the candidates of basic education certificate examination to be motivated. The government should not just take it that because they gave these teachers a hot meal during that period as a motivation but rather also add something to their salary.
By: Ɔpanyin Wireko
University of Education, Winneba
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