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The Country Representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Mr Abdourahamane Diallo, has called on the government to allocate funds in the annual national budget for the implementation of the Comprehensive National Teacher Policy (CNTP).

That, he said, was the surest way to ensure the effective implementation of the policy to help provide political leadership and policy direction to address challenges in the teaching profession.

Mr Diallo made the call at an event organised by the National Teaching Council (NTC) to show appreciation to sponsors of the 2021 Ghana Teacher Prize (GTP) in Accra yesterday.

Sponsors 

The sponsors that were rewarded at the event included GLICO Pensions, Prudential Bank, SIC Life Company Ltd, Databank, ABE Ventures Limited, UNESCO, Innolink Security and Confidential Print.

The rest were the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), InvestCorp, Petra Trust, IC Giving and EPP Books.

Each awardee was given a citation. 

CNTP

The CNTP was developed in 2020 by the Ministry of Education, with support from the Government of Norway and some international partners, including UNESCO, UNICEF and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

It was developed to help address policy dimensions in the areas of teacher recruitment and retention, initial and continuing teacher education, deployment, career structure, teacher employment and working conditions, as well as teacher reward and remuneration, among others.

“We urge the government and all stakeholders in the educational sector to prioritise the implementation of the CNTP to ensure that it is effectively implemented,” Mr Diallo said.

Commendation

He noted that the role of teachers in the attainment of quality education, leading to the socio-economic transformation of countries, was well known.

“We have all come this far in our various chosen professions mainly because of the quality tuition and guidance we were privileged to have received from our teachers. Teachers deserve our gratitude,” Mr Diallo said.

Government’s efforts 

For her part, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), Ms Gifty Twum-Ampofo, expressed appreciation to the sponsors for their support towards the awards.

Promoting the GTP as a merit award, she said, would help encourage many teachers to perform above expectation.

Currently, Ms Twum-Ampofo said, Ghana was among few nations which had, over the past two decades, consistently organised national programmes annually to appreciate teachers for their outstanding performances. 

She said the government, for its part, was committed to increasing the supply of qualified teachers as part of efforts to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education.

Background

The Ministry of Education, through the NTC, organised the 2021 GTP on World Teachers Day in Sunyani in the Bono Region on Tuesday, October 5, this year.

A 44-year-old teacher of the Winneba Senior High School, Mr Ebenezer Kojo Otoo, was crowned the 2021 Ghana’s Most Outstanding Teacher.

He received a GH¢250,000 cheque for a three-bedroom house, sponsored by GLICO Pension.