Open Letter to President Mahama: Digitalize And Don’t Decentralize Ghana’s Teacher Recruitment

“Digitalize And Don’t Decentralize Ghana’s Teacher Recruitment” That is the theme of the “Open Letter to the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama From The Founder and Lead Educator of Informed Teachers Network, Jerry Akporhor”.

His letter sighted by the Ghana Education News portal called on the president of the republic not to just think about decentralizing the recruitment process at the distrcit level but instead digitize the system to avoid recruitment related curruption, nepotism, favouratism among others. Below is the full letter.

Dear, Mr. President,

I watched your recent speech on education reforms and your passionate call to give more power to district education directors. I must say, I respectfully disagree.

Yes, our education system needs reform. Yes, we need to manage teacher recruitment,  teacher absenteeism and improve supervision. But handing over recruitment and full authority to district directors is not the solution.  It’s a big risk.

Let’s be honest with ourselves. Corruption is still a major issue in our public service. Giving more people the  power to re recruit at the district level will only open more doors for favoritism, nepotism ,bribery and corruption as well as abuse and  intimidation. Some of these directors already abuse their positions, forcing teachers to attend paid workshops and threatening those who fail to. Adding more power will only increase that abuse.

We’ve seen this before. That’s exactly why recruitment was centralised to stop such practices. So why return to what has failed?

Instead of decentralising recruitment, I’m humbly suggesting that let’s fix the system we already have. Let’s reduce the paperwork and the beurocratic bottlenecks. Let’s go digital because it’s possible.

Imagine a GES platform where the Director-General can log in and see information about every teacher, every school, and every vacancy across the country in real time. Teachers applying for recruitment or transfers or promotion and resolution to salary related issues should do it online. No need for long letters passing through layers of offices from district to regional to GES headquarters to controller.

The problem is not centralisation. The problem is slow, outdated paper processes. Digital tools like GESMIS and a real-time teacher database can make the system faster, cleaner, and more efficient.

Let’s empower the system, not just the people. Let’s recruit the right, competent people who will protect the vision, not abuse it.

READ: Enrollment target set now 15% for public schools

Mr. President, I’m yet to see the full report. When I do, I’ll respond further. But for now, I urge you: don’t decentralise recruitment. Digitalise it. Streamline it. Make it work.

Thank you.

Jerry Akporhor

Founder and Lead Educator of Informed Teachers Network

The call for that the teacher recruitment process should be “Digitalize And Don’t Decentralize” has been welcomed by teachers giving the challenges that the process faced in the past.