- Salutations
- Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum and his two deputies,
- The Minister for the Interior, Hon Ambrose Dery
- The Minister for Youth and Sports, Hon Mustapha Ussif,
- Other Ministers and Deputy Ministers present,
- The Registrar, National Teaching Council, Dr. Christian Addai-Poku
- The Board Chairman, National Teaching Council, Mr. Anis Haffar
- The Director-General, Ghana Education Service and his deputies,
- Other Heads of Agencies here present
- Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
- Development Partners,
- Nanima (traditional authorities),
- Non-Governmental Organizations,
- Teacher Unions (GNAT, NAGRAT, CCT and TEWU),
- Sponsors,
- Teachers and Students,
- The Media,
- Ladies and Gentlemen,
1. On behalf of His Excellency, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo- Addo, the President of the Republic, I am so excited to be here today to join teachers in Ghana and across the globe to celebrate this momentous occasion of World Teachers’ Day. A day set aside to celebrate teachers for their immeasurable contributions towards human development.
2. Teachers are profoundly essential to our world because they deliver education and as the world acknowledges that education is the most powerful weapon that fights poverty, insecurity, environmental degradation, gender and racial discrimination, diseases and many other human sufferings, it is important that those who deliver education are well acknowledged and appreciated.
3. The World Teachers’ Day presents us an opportunity to put a spotlight on the critical responsibility our teachers bear in ensuring that our children enjoy the right quality education. I am always fascinated by the GNAT slogan that says, “If you can read this, thank a teacher”.
4. Indeed, the government of President Akufo-Addo acknowledges the value of education to human development and nation building, hence our massive investment in our education system including our teachers. However, the massive investment in education will come to nothing if our teachers do not rise to the occasion and respond positively to the great vision of transforming our nation through education. It is a proven fact that no nation in the world has developed without a conscious investment in its education system and the teachers who deliver the education.
5. Indeed, the theme for this year’s celebration, ‘The Transformation of education begins with teachers’ is so captivating and synchronises very well with government’s education transformation agenda. Our education transformation agenda hinges on training our people to be creative, innovative, critical thinkers and technologically astute to lead our forward march towards the 4th industrial revolution.
6. It is in the light of this that the government has introduced the standard based curriculum that focuses on the four Rs – Reading, wRiting, aRithmetic and cReativity which will lead to 21 st century skills of critical thinking, innovation, collaboration, communication and problem solving.
7. The intentional and focused attention on Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education is to equip our people to compete favourably in the world of technology and artificial intelligence. This is what will make our growing youthful population employable, this is what will make them entrepreneurial, and this is what will boost industrialization under the One District One Factory agenda.
8. Government is convinced that the education transformation agenda can only be a success if no person of school-going age is left behind. We cannot afford to allow cost to deny any Ghanaian child the right to education. Thus far, the introduction of free SHS in the past five years has increased enrolment by 50%.
9. We have taken steps to make technical vocational education and training (TVET) more attractive to learners with emphasis on skills development. We have strategically created the Ghana TVET Service to focus on skills training and development and government has equipped a lot of the TVET institutions with state of the art equipment to provide 21 st -century skills to our learners.
10. With the construction of 32 TVET institutions, coupled with the introduction of Free TVET, our nation is on its way to the 4th industrial revolution, and with more jobs to be created for the youth.
11. As part of the education transformation agenda of the government, we have targeted tertiary enrolment ratio of 40% by the year 2030. The current ratio of 20% is not enough to propel our nation towards industry 4.0. We are therefore investing heavily in tertiary institutions to be able to absorb the numbers graduating from the TVET and the Senior High Schools.
12. All these strategies to use education to transform our nation can only happen when we have our teachers on our side. The teacher’s role is critical than any other in-school factor that influences education outcomes.
13. Since 2017, government has pushed more resources to the National Teaching Council in support of our teacher regulation and professionalization policy. In 2020, government passed the Education Regulatory Bodies Act 2020, Act 1023 which clarifies the NTC’s mandate in teacher regulation and professionalism.
14. The introduction of the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) Allowance to enable teachers afford CPD programmes to sharpen their skills as professionals is a demonstration of our commitment to a quality teaching workforce.
15. The introduction of Ghana Teacher Licensure Examination, licensing of in-service teachers and the point- based CPD policy are all geared towards maintaining our schools, teachers who have the requisite skills set to respond appropriately to the dynamics of the profession.
16. The government of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo remains committed to our ‘Teacher First’ policy in ensuring that our teachers, who are central to any education reforms, are fully tooled, skilled and supported to deliver quality learning outcomes to support our development aspirations.
17. The Best Teacher Award Scheme was introduced in 1995 as a means of appreciating the efforts of teachers and removing some of the frustrations that came the way of teachers as a result of the harsh economic conditions in the country that caused mass migration of teachers to Nigeria and other countries in the mid-1970s and 1980s.
18. As morale went down and workload of teachers increased, it became pertinent that government instituted the Best Teacher Award as a morale booster for teachers in 1995. Since then, we have as a country consistently celebrated our teachers on World Teachers Day on every 5 th of October and various awards given to outstanding teachers.
19. In 2018, government saw the need to rebrand the Best Teacher Award to Ghana Teacher Prize to be in line with Global Teacher Prize standards. Since the rebrand in 2018, a number of Ghanaian teachers have made us proud by winning or performing very creditably in some international awards competitions.
20. Last year, 2021, Mr. Evans Odei of Achimota SHS, Accra emerged as one of the top 10 best teachers of the Global Teacher Prize 2021. We missed out on the Ultimate marginally. In 2018, Mr. Robert G. Gariba of Richard Akwei Memorial School was among the top best 50 teachers at the Global Teacher Prize.
21. At the continental level, Ms. Augusta Lartey-Young, who was then at Presbyterian Boys School and Ms. Theodosia Larkai Oppong of Aburi Girls Senior High School emerged winners of the Africa Union’s Teacher Prize in 2019 and 2020 respectively. I congratulate them and the National Teaching Council for making Ghana proud globally. I encourage this year’s contestants to do their best to win the ultimate awards for Ghana.
22. Indeed, the reason for the institutionalization of the celebration in 1995 might have changed but the principle behind this day remains unchanged. Teachers on each passing day put in a lot of sacrifices to change our world by building the knowledge and skills of the next generation.
23. They put their lives and other resources on the line so that other peoples’ children can have a great future. The COVID- 19 pandemic exacerbated the already precarious conditions of teachers and brought to the fore, more forcefully, the critical role of teachers in society.
24. For the months that schools remained closed, both learners and their parents never stopped craving for schools to open and for learners to return to their teachers. Parents and indeed the entire nation came to terms with the enormity of the teachers’ work and how we all owe a great debt of appreciation to them for the various roles they have played and continue to play in our lives.
25. At this Ghana Teacher Prize celebration, we honour outstanding teachers for their exemplary performance and ground-breaking work that have affected and transformed the lives of learners. We further aim at motivating teachers to go beyond the ordinary in their line of work as we throw the spotlight on great teachers and share their remarkable stories, thereby inspiring and attracting many high-achieving candidates to join the profession.
26. The Ghana Teacher Prize underscores the importance of the teaching profession and symbolizes the fact that teachers throughout the world deserve to be recognized and celebrated.
27. Government appreciates the various corporate bodies that contributed in diverse ways to make this a memorable one for our teachers. We cherish their partnership with government, and I encourage them to sustain it and make it even better. I am so excited that since the rebrand of this award scheme in 2018, winners always receive their awards in real time and there has never been an occasion under this government when award winners have complained of delays in receiving their awards.
28. I also commend the Minister for Education, the Ministry and the National Teaching Council in particular for putting together such a wonderful programme. Finally, I appreciate the teacher unions and other stakeholders for making this day a great one for all teachers.
Thank you for your kind attention and God bless us all.
