Govt vehicle to Free SHS Ambassador is an insult to hardworking teachers

Govt’s vehicle to Free SHS ambassador is an insult to hardworking teachers many of whom have sacrificed their lives and toiled for the service without government appreciating them. 

At best, all teachers get for their selfless service to Ghana is their monthly salary. An actor is appointed by the government as a Free SHS ambassador and receives a brand new pick-up vehicle from the Ministry of Education at the expense of the taxpayers’ money.

There are countless dedicated teachers who teach in remote areas and need motorcycles to commute to and from school yet no one looks at them. These are the heroes of the teaching profession and true ambassadors of the Free SHS.

There are many basic schools owned and managed by the government that need help with basic things. Many of them do not have a motorcycle owned by the school for important errands. Would it not be prudent to give such a gift to basic school if all the SHSs in Ghana have enough to make their movement easy? What about our circuit supervisors who do not have offices in many circuits?  Have we for once found out how they struggle to move to and commute to schools each term? Are they not those who deserve support to improve their work and efficiency? We need to wake up as a nation and call a spade and space. This move to award a car to a Free SHS ambassador is wrong no matter how it is explained and the reasons given. 

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The Free SHS ambassador idea is of no use to this nation. Do we need an ambassador for Free SHS at all when our schools need urgent facilities?  If yes, then our hard-working teachers and students who teach and learn in our Senior High School are the best ambassadors. This move is wasteful.

This Free SHS ambassadors issue cropped up earlier in 2017 as many NPP faithful were tasked to go to secondary schools to preach Free SHS to newly admitted students to Senior High Schools. 

Rahim Banda, the Ghanaian actor and Free SHS Ambassador was presented with the vehicle, which to help him keep donating teaching and learning materials to deprived schools in the country through his ‘Back To School’ project.

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If this is the sole reason for this then the government has failed Ghanaians because, under the Free SHS policy, the government is to provide all essential needs of school children in second cycle schools. If Rahim Banda is the one raising all the funding to do this, it suggests that the government has neglected its responsibilities of providing the needed teaching and learning materials to all schools be they privileged or deprived schools.

This makes the loud noise that Free SHS students have all they need for effective teaching and learning a mirage. Why not use the funds used to procure the car to help a school in need of one or gift it to a teacher. 

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Instead of giving Rahim Banda and other Free SHS ambassadors such unnecessary gifts, lets rather raise money to buy cars for teachers in each school and make them ambassadors of Free SHS in our schools. This way, our teachers benefit from their toil and lead the Free SHS crusade, They are the linchpin at the centre of the programme implementation and not actors like Rahim Banda.

This high level of misplaced priority must stop whiles such gifts should go to teachers. We cannot wait a whole year for just one teacher to win a pick-up but an actor gets the same prize for doing virtually nothing for education. 

There are a lot of teachers in deprived communities in the country who need support but the Ministry of Education does nothing about it. Government and the Ministry of Education are losing focus, we must be improving the quality of school structures and not spending on Free SHS Ambassadorial roles.

What are the staff working under the Education Ministry and the GES doing that such roles cannot be played by them? They must move out of their offices into the deprived areas to perform their duties instead of leaving it to someone called Free SHS ambassador?

Let us get our priorities right, Teachers lives matter. They deserve better not a Free SHS ambassador.

Source: | NewsGhana24.com| Wisdom Hammond |