Latest Teachers News Update: G.E.S Discloses Where The 44,000/34,424 Teachers Who ‘Left The Profession’s Went To

There has been a wide circulation of news articles, especially on social media that about 44,000 teachers left the profession between the years 2020 and 2021 attributed to the deputy ranking of the Education Committee of Parliament Dr. Clement Apaak. Ghana Education Service however disputed the facts as put out by Dr. Apaak as misinformation with a counter press release to debunk claims made.

While the GES puts in efforts to debunk the figures, more attention needs to be directed towards finding lasting solutions to the massive turnover being experienced by the education sector in Ghana. According to Statista.com as of 2020, the primary school teaching staff in Ghana reached 185,715. Teachers employed in public pre-tertiary schools is estimated to be nearly 350,000.

If 44,000 teachers exit the public schools, that amounts to some 12.57% whiles the percentage that would have exited if the actual numbers were 34,424 is 9.83%. No matter which of the two figures is correct, the number of teachers exiting the profession is on the high side.

The Ghana Education Service in debunking the assertions made by Dr. Apaak maintained that the difference in the total number of teachers in the year 2021 resulted purely from change in the reported method adopted by the service and not because the teachers left the service.

The service clarified that, they used to include National service personels, NABCO beneficiaries and even teacher training school trainees on practice in their reporting format up to the year 2020 but decided to exclude those categories of teachers from their new reporting format to have a true picture of Pupil Teacher ratio.

READ: Government To Cancel 20% Of All Expenditure Lines In The 2022 Budget

The Ghana Education Service also disclose in the same press release that even the total number of 44,000 teachers being quoted to have left the service is false and that the total number of teachers in the category that was not captured in the new format is 34,424.