The Western Region Chapter of the Ghana National Association of Teachers in collaboration with the Canadian Teachers Federation is undertaking a week capacity building workshop for about 170 teachers in the region. The beneficiaries are from various public and private schools and members of the association. The workshop begun today and would draw upon professional experiences of both partners to improve teaching and learning. The program dubbed the “GNAT/CTF ‘NKABOM’ project overseas in –service training workshop” and has been an outstanding feature of the collaboration since the past fifty-seven years.
Western Region Secretary of GNAT, Nicholas Taylor in an exclusive interview with Skyy News at the sideline of an opening ceremony for the workshop this morning stressed that the association has the professional development of its members at heart and would work at enhancing them to improve educational standards in the country.
“I’m praying that they get the best out of the programme. We will keep on building the capacity of teachers to function properly in the classroom”, he added.
Western Region Chairman of GNAT, Rev. Apostle Charles Kaku, said the association remains committed to the professional and welfare of members, adding that leadership remains responsive and accountable to the development of expertise in the educational discipline.
“We believe that teaching is a profession and the professional competence of our members need to be sharpened and upgraded periodically to enhance efficiency and effectiveness in the classroom. As the largest and most formidable teacher union in the country, we acknowledge that training and re-training of our members is essential to the improvement of educational standards in Ghana- that is why 7% of dues is set aside to undertake such professional development activities”, the Regional Chairman justified.
WesternRegional Director of Education, Mr. Addo Dankwa Akuffo in an interview with Skyy News, highlighted that the proposed new curriculum for basic schools would be effected in September this year, and that requires teachers to upgrade their skills in teaching, and conducting more stimulating learning scenarios for the pupils.
He said “we are looking forward to seeing them better equipped to be able to perform the duties that GES and Ghana has assigned to them. We have a new curriculum coming up in September this year and the details are that we have the standard base curricular and what that means is that every level, be it class one, class two or any other class at all will be required to be able to do a certain set of calculation or in-depth thinking before we agree that you have passed through the system successfully”
For his part, lead of the New Entrants from the Canadian Teachers Federation, Hugo Prud’homme emphasized that their expectations are to exchange effective and proven strategies to improve learning among pupils.
“At CTF, we always believe that teachers learn best with teachers. We are all teachers at heart, and we will exchange strategies and knowledge of how to interact in the classroom. We believe that, we will learn as much… when we go back to Canada, as the Ghanaian teachers would learn from us” Mr. Hugo Prud’homme added.
The GNAT-CTF Nkabom In-service training will be held in Sekondi, at the Sekondi College. The one hundred and seventy teachers was selected among 19,880 teachers across various districts of the Western Region.
Story: Eunice Aryee/Justina Amoah/Skyy News
