Matthew Adjardjah, a former Head of Professional Development Department of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has requested The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) must make an attempt to maintain the footprint of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and its establishing inspiration.

He stated that, even so the education sector had seen major and notable institutional reforming over the years, it was of vital importance that GNAT continue its role as a alert beneficiary especially in protecting teacher well-being and safeguarding the institutional memory of Ghana’s basic and secondary education service.

He placed this request at the 5th Quadrennial Delegates Conference of the Accra Metro West District of GNAT at the PWIC Dome in Accra, while giving his important address. The event, which was on the theme “50 Years of achievements, teacher motivation, challenges and the way forward”, assembled municipal directors of education in the district, teachers, union leaders and beneficiaries in education to analyse advancement made for the past four years and setup new district executives.

In the course of his address, Mr Adjardjah detected the path and course of education restructures in Ghana from the it was colonized to now, emphasizing on the development of the GES, which was orderly setted up through the Ghana Teaching Service Decree (NRCD 247) in 1974 and as time went on changed it name to Ghana Education Service. He bewailed the recent collapse of assigned duties within the sector, mentioning that the GES, which previously possessed full and extensive management of teacher training, curriculum formation and textbook design, had now given up much of its authority to not one or two but many agencies such as the National Teaching Council (NTC), National Council for Curriculum Assesment NACCA and Teachnical and Vocational Education and Traning (TVET).

Mr Adjardjah also emphasized the need to better the incentives and payments of teachers, disagreeing that the nation’s announced focusing of education was not showing in the conditions of service for teachers. He stated that, the hold up in advancing teachers after higher education as well as inconsistency in postings and elevations were origin of exasperation for many in the profession. He characterised the event as a suitable and well timed event for self analysis, requesting teachers to display not only on attainment but also on areas that restructuring is necessary.

The director insisted his office’s help for teachers and showed hope that with the right incentives and continued cooperation with GNAT, the difficulties encountering the work or career could be prevailed over.