40k “Ghost” Teachers Trained in GALOP? Where is the verifiable data?

40k “Ghost” Teachers Trained in GALOP? Where is the verifiable data? Something is still not clear and much more needs to be clarified.

The Ministry of Education and the GES might have succeeded in convincing the World Bank that it has trained over 40,000 teachers under the Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcome Project (GALOP) programme but teachers of the GES and Ghanaians, in general, have their doubts that are still muddy and unsettling.

Verifiable data is key in decision making and in convincing open-minded and educated people. If some 40,000 teachers have been trained, there should be verifiable data on this to demonstrate credibility that the teachers trained are not ghosts or there are no ghost names in the 40,000 teachers trained with the funds provided by the World Bank.

The Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcome Project (GALOP) teachers’ training scandal is estimated to be $1.2 million. As we will say in the Akan language ” Sika ni wor hin?” Where is the money? Assuming that in fact, 40,000 teachers were training under the programme, we ask again, where is the verifiable data on the participants?

The Education Minister refuted the $1.2m GALOP training scandal however, up to date, data has not been forthcoming on the very teachers who were beneficiaries of the training.

The Education Minister in the heat of the matter indicated that the Ministry of Education held digital literacy training for over 41,000 teachers in the country. He furthered that  “A platform was created for teachers and on that platform, teachers went there and did the training,”

We are still looking for the platform on which the training was held and whether this training was announced to the entire teaching fraternity to join or participate.

What is also confusing and worrying is the inability of Ghana Education Service to independently prove that, its employees (teachers) in the classrooms have received such training.

40k “Ghost” Teachers Trained in GALOP? Where is the verifiable data? “NTC platform has also trained 43,000 teachers. Ask my colleague teachers across the country, and they will tell you they are on a platform and learning digital literacy,” the Minister in charge of Education said at the press briefing to clear his name and that of the Ministry, however, we ask, where is the data on the trained teachers?

It would do the entire nation a lot of good if the 41,000 teachers trained in the GALOP using funds from the World Bank is made public. The data should be grouped on a regional and district basis to help teachers in the various regions and districts verify whether their names have been captured as have received the said training. Every region, district, municipal assembly, or education directorate has data on teachers within their jurisdiction. This will enable teachers to check and cross-check to ensure that the records on the training of 40,000 teachers are factual and clean and that beneficiaries can confirm their participation.

If you are a teacher, have you received any training under the GALOP programme? Accountability, Credibility, and good leadership are expected to be devoid of unsubstantiated claims and unverifiable expenditures. The Education Sector at the Pre tertiary level needs well-trained and qualified human resources to man the various classrooms.

Ghana’s Education Sector In A State Of Chaos: Scandals And Corruption In Ghana Education Sector. Corruption and scandals have eaten into every fibre in the public sector, from matrons to head teachers to officers in the education ministry who are required to uphold honesty, accountability, and financial discipline have all dropped their guards and continue to chase after self-interest to the detriment of teachers and learners, poor infrastructure and misplaced priorities.

There is a state of chaos in Ghana’s education sector. Scandals, corruption, and poor management are eating away the gains made by the country’s educators over the years. A situation that is evident in how poorly our education sector is being governed today. This is despite the fact that there is more money being spent on our education sector than ever before, much more is going down the drain, not being used for priority purposes or unaccounted for.

READ: Why Students Fail WASSCE & BECE Exam: Causes, Solutions & Tips

The state of education in Ghana is poor. Tackling the challenges facing the sector is a priority for the government. However, it needs to do more to improve the quality of education in the country, halting every corrupt practice and the scandals that continue to erode funds away. If not, it will continue to fail at delivering on its promise of ensuring that all children in Ghana receive a quality education. Education in Ghana is characterized by a set of challenges. These include limited access to quality education, low quality of education, poor management of public funds, weak institutional capacity, low teaching quality, and low learner engagement, lack of textbooks and resources for teachers for the past three years since the new curriculum was introduced without recourse to effective and result oriented planning.

40k “Ghost” Teachers Trained in GALOP? If teachers were trained, where is the verifiable data?

 

 

Source: Ghanaeducation.org