The issue of upgrading and promotion of teachers has been a major topic for discussion these days with much of the blame on the government for not promoting and upgrading our teachers in our basic schools but we have forgotten about the representative of the director-general of education which is our district directors of education.
Some directors of education are thorns in the fresh of teachers in the basic schools with regards to the issue of the upgrading of these teachers. Evidence can be a point to the fact that last year somewhere in May in 2020 a district director of education in the Eastern region of Ghana issues a notice to his teachers directing that teachers who have gone to further studies through the sandwich and distance mode are not allowed to teach in the senior high schools in Ghana which was false.
This letter was later disclaimed by the then PRO of the ministry of education pointing out that they have noticed a claim of that sought and that there is no directive in the Ghana education service which says that a teacher with such a degree should not be allowed to teach in our senior high schools.
At times it baffled my mind when these directors of education who are supposed to fighting for the improvement and the comfortability of our teachers are those seeking for the downfall of these very teachers.
We talk about the fact that teachers have not been upgraded since 2019 but when we are going to cross-check in some district teachers have been upgraded during this period under discussion. Some directors of education do not even want their teachers to go for study leave neither to talk about upgrading.
A teacher can apply for promotion or upgrading and these very directors of education will intentionally deny these teachers the opportunity.
Some district, especially in Eastern region, has been tagged as a district that “taboo upgrading” teachers at times complain that they don’t even know whether these directors think that when they get the promotion government is going to deduct the salaries of these directors and be paying these teachers.
There is a district in the Oti region that has promoted their teachers who completed college of education in 2017 to superintendent one but there are the vast majority of teachers who completed this same 2017 from colleges of education but have not been promoted to this very ranks. Are some teachers more important than others?
It is fact that directors of education are acting as a setback to the upgrading and promotion of teachers. Because some of them their posture clearly shows that they don’t want young teachers to upgrade fast and become like them.
They feel that their time they suffered before they get to where they are and all teachers must follow suit.
