GNAT president interacting with some reporters after the event
A Research Fellow at the Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, Dr. Mike Boakye Yiadom, has encouraged the leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to formulate crisis response plan to safeguard the well-being of its members.
In so doing, he said, laid-down procedures and protocols would need to be established in schools in order to enable teachers to deal effectively with crisis that may occur as a result of pandemic, epidemic and other forms of emergencies.
“We need to equip our teachers and educational leaders to understand that crisis response is a big deal and things won’t go well if you don’t have such a plan,” he said.
Dr. Yiadom was speaking at a stakeholders’ forum organised by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) as part of activities to commemorate the International Teachers Day slated for October 5, 2020.
The programme was under the theme: “Teachers Leadership in Developing Crisis Education Response”.
The former Vice-Chancellor of University of Education, Winneba, Professor Josephus Anamuah Mensah, said the current Covid-19 crisis which has affected over 450,000 students should not be allowed to widen the existing educational gap across various demographic segments of the country.
He noted that the preparation of teachers who are leaders in such crisis situation would require the building of a leadership mindset among teachers at all levels of decision-making.
Teachers, he said, would need to develop strategies that would make students be at the centre of the learning process while integrating technology into their teaching process which would alter their roles from information conveyors to coaches and facilitators of learning.
He added that teachers would need to be given the needed resources and be taught how to use technology in order for effective teaching to take place.
“Technology is only a tool while the teacher is the master craftsman, and he is the one going to organise the symphony to play the instruments,” he said.
The Deputy Director of the Ghana Education service (GES), Anthony Boateng, urged teachers to work at finding innovative ways of providing continuous education in safe and secure learning environment.
The President of GNAT, Phillipa Larsen, in an interview, said the Teachers Day celebration would serve as a catalyst for teachers in the country to assess their needs in terms of resources required to deal with crisis in the future.
By Issah Mohammed