In 2019, 2020, and 2021, new educational policies and programs have been introduced into the Ghanaian schools mostly the basis school by the Ghana education service and NaCCA with little or no initiative to motivate teachers who are the machinery when it comes to the implementation of this enacted policies.
Teachers in all years have been used as the tool or mouthpiece in the implementation of government-initiated policies with little been said about how these teachers carry out this workload all the time meanwhile their salaries are always stagnant. Nobody asks about how these teachers manage to feed their families with the little salaries they get. The only thing that has been said by these leaders is to improve quality education without improving teachers’ wellbeing.
This current government has introduced a lot of educational policies such as a new curriculum, new standard-based assessment, common core program which is in the pipeline waiting for implementation. Meanwhile, for those teachers who are supposed to implement these policies their salaries are still as they were.
The only motivating policy initiated by the government to cushion teachers was the famous teacher professional development allowance which was paid in last year November. Most teachers were anxiously awaiting for it this 2021 but do not see it, with many social media news circulating with the assumption that the government has agreed with teacher unions for the allowance to be paid in one particular month, which is not yet known.
Because this allowance has not been paid in the first month of 2021, most teachers tagged the teacher professional development allowance as a political gimmick. They are of the view that because the government did not pay in the allowance in the first month of 2021 and nothing authentic has been said about it, they feel it was because of political power that the government paid their professional development allowance. We wait to see how this issue unfolds coming days.