Educational reforms would fail if teachers' conditions are not improved

Navrongo (U/E), March 19, GNA - The Upper East Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Linus Cofie Attey has warned that the New Educational Reforms would become a fiasco if salaries and conditions of service of teachers were not improved.
     He sounded the caution in an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at the weekend, during the inauguration of the University for Development Studies (UDS) branch of the GNAT in Navrongo.
     "It is time Government stopped paying lip service to the improvement of the condition of service and salaries of teachers and redeemed its pledges, if the quality of education we have been yearning for were to be achieved", he emphasised.
     He explained that many stakeholders in education had not been consulted on the Government's New Educational Reforms scheduled to begin in September 2007 and that no consensus had also been arrived at on the subject.
     Mr Attey noted that it was the desire of teachers to collaborate with their employers to raise productivity in an enabling environment and under workable conditions.
     The Regional GNAT Secretary also urged the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) to team up with GNAT to form a formidable group to enable them to fight on a common front.
     "Formation of splinter groups cannot be a panacea to solving teachers' problems. The solution lies in the forging of a united front", he indicated.
     He exhorted GNAT members in UDS to exhibit a high sense of commitment to the branch, saying, the mission of GNAT was to unify all teachers in pre-tertiary educational institutions to strive for better conditions of services and job security as well enhancing the professional status of members.
19 March 07