Ghana’s education system despite efforts by successive governments to deal with the numerous challenges it faces, continues to show evidence of deep-rooted problems that threatens the successful transfer of academic knowledge to the next generation.
Issues such as accessibility, unavailability of needed teaching and learning materials, lack of infrastructure and poor remuneration for teachers comes up as some of the major challenges.
Comedian and professional teacher, Michael Owusu Afriyie well known as Teacher Kojo, in recent times has embarked on a personal campaign to leverage on the power of social media to court the attention of policy makers and other stakeholders to deal with such issues.
Officials of the Ghana Education Service recently summoned Teacher Kojo over allegations of misconduct and despite the specifics of the allegations not being known, some Ghanaians have concluded the action by the GES as an intimidation tactic aimed at stopping his #FixGES campaign.
Gathering the opinions of some parents at Odorkor Market in Accra, they shared varied thoughts in support of the teacher cum comedian.
According to some of the parents, Teacher Kwadwo deserves to be lauded for his social campaign as he has not only brought to fore the ills of Ghana’s education system but has in turn provided solutions to some of the problems he continues unravel.
“He is doing a good work, what is bad about someone bringing out the challenges in the education sector? If he does not bring it to social media, it’s likely nobody will hear about it because it is not everybody that knows about the hinterlands where these challenges are prevalent. He deserves to be lauded,” a parent said.
Among other things, other parents also urged the government to prioritize the welfare of teachers.
“Whether you become a doctor or a nurse it has to be through a teacher. But it looks like they are least respected when it comes to what they take as salary. When you look at the salary Teacher Kwadwo takes (GHc1,500) and the charity he does including the uniforms he sows for school children you realize teachers have nothing to spare at the end of the day,” a parent lamented.
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