‘We need transformational teachers’

The Educators’ Network, an organisation of teachers, says there’s an urgent need to transform the attitude of teachers to help encourage children improve their literacy through reading and writing. 

The Network observed that teachers spend a lot of time outside the classroom, with a high rate of teacher absenteeism occurring at the primary level.

Most Ghanaian primary school teachers spend just 76 days out of the 196 days needed to engage pupils in direct learning activities, according to a World Bank study in 2010.

The study said only 109 school days out of 197 are fully operational as teachers spent other days engaged in activities such as collecting salaries, attending funerals, and travelling long distances to their schools.

The concern was shared by the Network at its third annual Ghana Literacy Summit under the theme “Empowering Children through Words”.

Making a presentation, Dr. Leslie Casely-Hayford, a development consultant, stated that the country’s education sector has not been focusing on improving and empowering children to read and write but rather on other things.

“Our teachers do not seem to be working toward change and improvement in this literacy context, and some do not appear to care about the impact they are having on their pupils.

“Very few teachers know the names of the children in the classroom. The teacher’s attitude plays a major role in the classroom.”

She said most children often fear their teachers because they reprimand them, which discourages them from learning. She therefore advised that teachers’ attitude toward children should be one that focuses on improving their relationship with them.

Dr. Casely-Hayford added that efforts should be made to assist children learn to read first in their mother tongue -- which provides a strong basis for transition to reading in a second language, and helps them to move on to basic phonic and syllabic approaches using meaningful words to build up their confidence in literacy.

The Educators’ Network (TEN) is an association of highly-experienced Ghanaian teachers who share a deep-rooted passion for the profession.

TEN works with simple, effective teaching methodologies to transform the standard of classroom delivery in Ghana and ultimately heighten student achievement at all grade levels.

The Network also engages with teachers, parents, community-members and children to cultivate and develop positive literacy experiences as the basis for sustainable improvements in academic achievement.