Asantehene Urges Educational Reforms In Ghana To Aim At Producing Innovative Students For The Nation’s Economic Wellbeing

The Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II has called for educational reforms and systems that not only prioritize the morale and needs of teachers but importantly recognise and value the importance of the role of the teacher in the success of such reforms.

The Asantehene made the call while addressing the 6th Quadrennial Delegates’ Congress of the Ghana National Teachers’ Association (GNAT).

This Congress is a five-day event that is purposed to review the state of GNAT after four years to identify challenges, progress made, and plans for the next four years.

The event, themed “Surviving as a Reliable and Vibrant Teacher Union in the 21st Century”, coincides with the climax of the Association’s 90th Anniversary.

A Research Consultant to GNAT,  Linus Andoh, took the delegates through the newly developed five-year strategic document of the Association that not only identifies the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats it faces but strategic plans to better position GNAT in the fast-changing industrial environment in Ghana. He commended GNAT for what it has been able to achieve, over the years in terms of investment and rural health needs of teachers.

He warned that the lack of active involvement of members at the grassroots and the absence of an alternative means of dues payment poses considerable challenges to the sustenance of the Association.

A former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast, Reverend Emmanuel Addo Obeng, urged GNAT to make the implementation of its planned Institute for Research and Industrial Relations a priority since it holds the key to making the Association unavoidable in any State education policy formulation and implementation while improving on their negotiation skills to reduce the spate of industrial actions.

The Asantehene further urged that any new educational reform in Ghana should not only carry along and motivate the teacher as the key for successful implementation but must, “as well aim at producing innovative and creative students to drive the national socio-economic development agenda”