Minister Warns Against Assault On Teachers

By Stephen Kwabena Effah
Tuesday, 22 August 2006(Page 15)

Any community that assaults or poses a threat to a teacher or teachers will have its school closed down, Mrs. Angelina Baiden-Amisah, Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sports, has warned.

Any teacher, who misconducts his or herself will also face severe sanctions, she further warned.

Speaking to the Times shortly after launching a UNESCO Teacher Training Initiative for Sub-Saharan Africa (TTISSA) in Accra on Wednesday, she observed that teacher-beating is becoming a phenomenon in the country and, therefore, called for measures to safeguard them.

The initiative, which aims to increase the number of teachers and improve the quality teaching was taken at the UN General Assembly held in Paris, France last year where 46 African countries were selected to progressively participate through a four-year cycle by 2015.

She cited an instance of her order for the closure of a school in Accra for a week, after a gang raided the school and threatened the teachers and management and beat up a teacher for punishing a student who reported the incident to the gang.

Mrs. Baiden-Amissah indicated that whenever such an incident occurs, a committee will be set up to delve into the matter and if it is found out that the teacher or teachers were assaulted unnecessarily, then that school will be closed down, to "serve as a warning to them and other communities."

She indicated that the country needs more teachers to meet the demands arising out of the introduction of the Capitation Grant by the government noting that "efforts are being made to train enough teachers to fill in the gap."

The Deputy Minister noted that senior secondary school graduates were being recruited to be trained so as to help close up the gap.

Launching the initiative, she asked institutions which prepare teachers to ensure that their products acquire the requisite knowledge, competencies, skills and dispositions that would make them effective on the field.

She also reminded teachers to promote quality teaching through diagnostic testing, guidance and counseling of students for better learning outcomes.

She assured UNESCO of government’s preparedness to support the initiative for it to adequately address the needs of the teaching profession in the country.