2020 election: NPP treats teachers better

Politics of Monday, October 12, 2020

Source: Starr FM

2020-10-12

Education Minister Dr. Mathew Opoku Prempeh says the Akufo-Addo government has an impeccable record of treating teachers better than the opposition Democratic National Congress.

According to Dr. Prempeh, the NDC opposition while in government between 2012 and 2016 produced the worst education policies since independence.

He also pointed out that the government at that time treated teachers with disrespect, a situation which, he said, negatively affected the education sector.

Addressing a conference of the Volta PNP Regional Teachers Network in Ho on Sunday, Dr. Prempeh noted that the PNP is the only party that meets the aspirations and needs of teachers.

“In three and a half years, what his government has done is unparalleled. Today I will not talk about what we have done in education, I will talk about what we have done with teaching and teachers. And I would like those who claim to be Professors and occupied the Ministry for four years before I arrived to sit next to me so that we could count our achievements one by one, ”he said.

“… And for four years, there has not been a demonstration or strike by teachers; that in itself should send NDC to the bush, if they were handling it right the car wouldn’t be parked near the bush. They never achieved leadership, they exercised power but they were never leaders, “he added.

The Education Minister also noted that the cancellation of the teacher training subsidy by the former John Mahama was the last straw.

“They paid you as a student-teacher the day you started training, they paid you until you finish, whether you pass your final exams or not. A certain government came and said to separate the education faculties from the Ghana Education Service, thus causing the student-teacher salary to be cut off. That government at another time decided to suspend the teacher training subsidy, with the excuse that you are a tertiary institution, so you qualify for student loans. That was not the problem because it was the truth, but the trainee teacher who finished the college of education, who was assigned, was not included in the payroll of the Ghana Education Service until you did not complete your probationary period and your induction and your kominini and got your completion before the district supervisor or someone came to certify that you are.

“So I know teachers who taught for 20 years who never made the payroll because they never completed their exams in the training school. So the student-teacher pay that continued when they finished school was to allow the teacher to have something to chew on before they were fully absorbed in the teaching profession, when they canceled it and stopped the teacher training assignment, they never thought about it what was happening to him. the teacher, who went to Pusiga, Aflao, Wenchi or Tumu who did not know anyone in that community, where that teacher was going to live, how that teacher was going to support himself until the salary of that teacher arrived; that is another form of disrespect for the teacher ”, said the Minister.

The minister urged all teachers not to make a mistake by voting for John Dramani Mahama in the December polls, as that would spell another ruin for the teaching profession.