King Ali Awudu
The Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) have called for the reintroduction of the trimester system in the country which according to them would afford students ample time for rest.
Such rest would enable the students to enhance their concentration in class.
For teachers, they said the system would provide them with adequate time for research, and this, they went on, would improve their delivery in the classrooms.
The semester system was adopted by the Ghana
Education Service (GES) as a response to disruptions occasioned by the Covid-19 pandemic; the teacher group is however opposed to it.
Addressing the press last Tuesday in Accra, the CCT President, King Ali Awudu explained that twenty weeks which teachers and students of Junior High School spend at school in a semester is too long.
“Too much stress is put on the teachers and students as well. A visit to some schools confirmed the lack of concentration among students and the stress they go through,” he said.
The Coalition therefore, called on the government to scrap the semester system and reintroduce the trimester system.
Ali Awudu said, the CCT has taken keen interest in the roll-out of the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) workshop by the GES; a mandatory programme with some service providers facilitating.
The CCT raised issues over the attempt to force teachers to go for the programme against their will and urged the service providers engaged to desist from charging fees as this will discourage the teachers from participating in the CPD in future.
Mr. Awudu further noted that indiscipline in schools has become an issue because of the banning of corporal punishment.
“We are by this, requesting for broader stakeholder engagement to reconsider the decision of the GES to ban some types of punishments in our schools. When we allow the canker to continue, it may have dire consequences on the future of our children and the country as a whole,” he said.
By Ephraim Quarcoo