Teachers vow to resist basic school privatization

• Posted on February 27, 2019
• by Ellsamwise King
• Comment

Four teacher unions say they will kick against a new government policy that seeks to privatize the management of some basic schools in the country on a pilot basis.

The Ghana Partnership Schools (GPS) project is set to commence in September 2019.

The teacher unions, including the Teachers & Educational Workers’ Union of Ghana (TEWU), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT-GH), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) have cautioned against the implementation of the policy.

The GPS project, which will be piloted in the Ashanti, Northern, Central and Greater Accra Regions, seeks to relinquish the running of over 100 public basic schools under private management.

However, in an interaction with the media, General Secretary of GNAT, David Ofori Acheampong, explained that the move aims at commercializing and eventually privatizing public education in Ghana.

“The project is purported to last for three years after which it may be institutionalized permanently. The unions find the Ghana partnership project as subtle and eventual privatization, commercialization and commodification of public education in Ghana. We are amazed that the government is trumpeting the implementation of the project. In all these endeavours, the major stakeholders, GNAT, NAGRAT, TEWU and CCT-GH have not been involved in the two-year planning process of the project. We find this unfortunate and unacceptable,” according to the unions.

Mr. Acheampong also called on the government to release Capitation Grants for the 2018/19 academic year.

Ministry calls the bluff

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education has called the bluff of the teacher unions who are against the implementation of the policy and pledged to go ahead to roll it out to improve the standards of education in the country.

Reacting to the concerns of the teachers on Eyewitness News, Public Relations Officer of the Ministry, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, said the partnership, which will also benefit the teachers, will take off to enhance teaching and learning.