By Joyce Bedeley:
The 5th Quadrennial Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) came off last Friday at Apeguso in the Asuogyaman district of the Eastern region. The event which drew together teacher delegates from various parts of the district, converged at the premises of the Presbyterian church to mark the event under the theme: ‘The Teacher – Key to Transforming Societies through Education; the 2030 Agenda Roles of the Teacher.’
Explaining the basis of the choice of theme, Mr. Daniel Afedu – Eastern Regional GNAT secretary in an interview with Rite news indicated that the Agenda 2030 was an initiative of the United Nations as part of their Millennium Development Goals to check that certain goals were attained in the educational sector whose target was expected to be achieved by the year 2015, a target that was not achieved.
‘The United Nations as part of their Millennium Development Goals to ensure that certain goals were attained in the educational sector, set its target to achieve this by the year 2015. Unfortunately, the situation did not improve and we realized that things still remained the same. Due to this, the time to achieve this has been extended to the year 2030 to ensure that every child has access to quality education, inclusive education and equal level of education for rural areas and urban areas at a cost to be borne by the government,’ Mr. Afedu told Rite news.
According to the GNAT secretary, the quest to ensure that teachers transform the country’s societies to a better state through proper education informed the Asuogyman district’s choice of the theme, ‘Transforming Societies through Education, the 2030 Agenda Roles of the Teacher.
‘Each district in the country chose its own theme and the Asuogyaman district settled on this theme in order to help teachers know their roles to play to help the GNAT and the educational sector to achieve the goal,’ he added.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) holds its conference every four years to afford the body the opportunity to discuss the way forward for the group. The conference also uses the occasion to elect new district executives to steer its affairs for the next four years and also to audit the old executives on their four year tenure and more especially to evaluate performance of various schools in the district.
He was emphatic that GNAT has a major role to play to help transform Ghanaian societies and this can only be achieved through quality education and also inclusive education where disabled students will be given equal opportunities as the ‘normal students’.
‘Ghana National Association of Teachers has a major role to play in order to transform Ghanaian societies and this can only be achieved through quality education and also inclusive education where disabled students will be given equal opportunity just as the ‘normal students,’ Mr. Afedu noted. This according to him should also include equal education to children in deprived areas to help them also realize their potentials as those in the urban areas. The conference therefore is also to direct teachers on their roles to help realize this dream.
On what role agricultural science should play in the country’s curriculum, Mr. Daniel Afedu while appreciating the essence of the subject, noted that it was a good idea to make agric science a core examinable subject but added that this can be implemented only after the sector has been mechanized to make the sector more attractive for the students and also disabuse their thoughts from the notion that agriculture is some sort of punishment since everything is done with manpower.
Source: ritefmonline.org
