Communiqu? Issued By TTAG, Eastern??-Greater Accra Sector

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Communiqu? Issued By The Teacher Trainees? Association Of Ghana (Ttag), Eastern??-Greater Accra (Ega) Sector

?AT THE END OF ITS 19TH ANNUAL GENERAL ASSEMBLY HELD AT ACCRA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION FROM THE 13TH TO 17TH FEBRUARY, 2014 ON THE THEME; ?THE REINTRODUCTION OF THE TEACHER TRAINEE ALLOWANCE A SOLID FOUNDATION FOR QUALITY TEACHER EDUCATION??

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PREAMBLE:

We the delegates of the 19th Annual General Assembly, having deliberated extensively on the theme; ?The Reintroduction of ?the Teacher Trainee Allowance a Solid Foundation for Quality Teacher Education?? do appreciate the effort of the government and other stakeholders in promoting quality education in the colleges of education in the country.

We do hereby issue this communiqu? as a true reflection of the deliberations made by delegates for consideration by government and other stakeholders in education;

  1. The allowance scheme was instituted to serve as motivation and attraction of quality teachers to the under-paid teaching profession that most people disregard in this country. Even with the allowance in place, not many students were attracted to the teaching profession, hence the allowance served as a motivation to students with the passion to teach, scrapping it will make the teaching profession unattractive to the youth.
  2. Teacher trainees go through a lot during training to equip them in order to give off their best to this nation and thus need the penny which is even taxed to purchase handouts, prepare teaching and learning materials (TLMs) for practice, pay for facility user fees, registration fees and also assist third year students on out-program attachments to pay for their accommodation, utility bills, just to mention but a few. This decision and change of policy on teacher education, we strongly believe, will be detrimental to teacher education in the country.
  3. Relatedly, the allowances have served as poverty alleviation interventions over the years in the sense that, families that cannot afford the exorbitant fees of other tertiary institutions in the country have had a last resort to send their wards to Colleges of Education in their bid to have their lives transformed and made better by these wards.
  4. We appreciate government?s effort to increase the admission quota in colleges; however, we are of a strong conviction that, scrapping of the allowance will reduce drastically the number of highly intellectual individuals who go into Colleges of Education every year.
  5. ?It will also limit the chances of the brilliant but needy students who could not afford University Education the opportunity to attain tertiary Education.
  6. The countries annual teacher deficit of 60,000 will further worsen if the government doesn?t rescind its decision. Meanwhile, about 10,000 teachers leave the profession annually. General Assembly therefore calls on government to institute more proactive teacher motivation and retention policies and packages to overcome the teacher deficit in the country.
  7. We call on government to take pragmatic measures to provide adequate facilities and infrastructure in order to increase enrollment rather than scrapping of teacher trainee allowance.
  8. Teachers opting to teach at basic level under precarious conditions in the numerous deprived communities in the country are enough sacrifice and they should not start this work with a bag of debt.
  9. We call for the support of civil society organizations, unions and well-meaning Ghanaians who have the teaching profession at heart and believe that, quality teacher education is an indispensable tool in building the better Ghana we all yearn for.
  10. We should not in any way be compared to any other tertiary institution for the sake of our tertiary status; we are of different type because of the strict moral and social training components of our course. We teach, mold and train the feeble mind.
  11. Asking teacher trainees to go for loans to finance their education in the colleges of education will mean that, they cannot be bonded by the G.E.S after their graduation. General Assembly is therefore urging the government to review the policy on the withdrawal.
  12. We further call on government and other stakeholders to provide trainees with the requisite teaching and learning materials such as syllabi and textbooks to enhance training while in college.
  13. We passionately appeal to PRINCOF to collaborate with the Institute of Education, University of Cape Coast (UCC) to rectify all irregularities concerning trainees? results.
  14. We also humbly appeal to the Institute of Education, University of Cape Coast (UCC) to stream down the examination registration fee that is increased every year.
  15. We also plead with the government to listen to teachers petition to prevent subsequent strike actions by teachers since their absence in the classroom will go a long way to affect the academic performance of students.
  16. We urge government as a matter of urgency, to formulate a national educational policy with a strong legal backing that cannot be changed unnecessarily because of political reasons.

 

Dated: 22nd February, 2014

 

SIGNED:

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AGBO OSCAR KOFI

(General Secretary)??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

 

 

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DISTRIBUTION:

  • Minister of? Education
  • Chairman, National Council for Tertiary Education
  • Director General, Ghana Education Service
  • Director, Teacher Education Division, G.E.S
  • Secretary General, Trades Union Congress (TUC)
  • General Secretary, Ghana National Assoc. of? Teachers (GNAT)
  • Administrator, Colleges of Education
  • General Secretary, Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU)
  • President, National Assoc. of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT)
  • Director, Institute of? Education, UCC
  • Chairman, PRINCOF (EGA)
  • All Principals, Colleges of? Education
  • All Local TTAG Presidents
  • All Notice Boards, Colleges of? Education
  • All Media Houses
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