Ghana stands at the crossroads of exporting human talents – Minister
Government is exploring the opportunity of exporting human talents abroad, especially teachers in order to earn foreign exchange since it cannot employ the huge number of teachers produced by the country’s Teacher University Colleges.
Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the Minister of Education, addressing journalists at the Meet-the-Press series, in Accra on Tuesday, said his outfit had held discussions with the World Bank on the matter and that Ghana was exploring the possibility of bringing in fellow Africans to offer their services in the various sectors of the economy.
“Training for export is high on the agenda and I have held discussion with the World Bank less than two weeks ago where they want Ghana to open up and bring in fellow African countries that are in dire situation than ourselves like Liberia, and Sierra Leone to train their teachers and also export teachers to them in the interim,” the Minister stated.
He said the Government was negotiating with Guinea to import Guinean French teachers while Ghana would also export Ghanaian English teachers to that country to support each others’ education system.
The Education Minister cited Asian countries like Philippines, Vietnam and Thailand that are currently exporting house-helps or maids to Ghana, noting that exporting human resource would inure to the benefit of the nation.
He said in view of the large number of teachers on the Ghana Education Service (GES) payroll, it would be difficult for government to employ more teachers.
Currently, Ghana produces about 35,000 teachers annually with Diploma and Degree certificates from the 46 Teacher University Colleges across the country as well as the University of Education, Winneba, University of Cape Coast, University of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology and University of Development Studies.
Out of the figure, Government manages to employ between 6,000 and 8,000 teachers annually to fill the vacancies in the various schools across the country.
This year alone 53,000 students applied for entry into the Teacher University Colleges nationwide.
Dr Opoku Prempeh said government was looking for support to do rationalization scheme so that henceforth teachers would be deployed in schools that needed them most, and not just wholesale posting of teachers to the GES for deployment.
Commenting on the recent teacher licensure examinations conducted by the National Teaching Council, Dr Opoku Prempeh said the outcome of the examinations was not encouraging.
However, he failed to provide statistics to that effect, saying that a suit was pending at the court on the conduct of the examination. Nearly 30,000 teachers took part in the examination.
Some aggrieved teachers have filed a writ at the court challenging the legality for organizing the teacher licensure examinations.
The Education Minister noted that the criteria set by the National Teaching Council and the National Accreditation Board allowed only teachers with PhDs to teach at the University Colleges of Education, while teachers with Master Degrees can serve as Teaching Assistants.
Source: GNA