RETIRED TEACHERS ADVISED TO FORM GUILDS (PAGE 11, DEC 23)

THE Brong Ahafo Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr Kwaku Asante Nketiah, has advised retired teachers in the various districts to come together and form “Retired Teachers Guilds” to serve as a medium for socialisation.
He observed that when some teachers went on retirement, they became miserable, a situation that, he said, caused their untimely and avoidable deaths.
However, he pointed out that if retired teachers could group themselves and organise periodic meetings and entertainment sessions, health matters and other educational programmes, they could forget about their problems and live longer.
Mr Nketiah gave the advice at an end-of-year get-together of the Sunyani Municipal Retired Teachers Guild, pointing out that with such a grouping in place, the members could come to the aid of a member who had a problem.
“It is in this vein that I decided to nurture the idea of bringing together all retired teachers, including former regional and district directors of education, education officers and other category of teachers’, to form the guild in the municipality,” he disclosed.
From a humble beginning of 12, he said, the guild could now boast 132 members, who met every month, paid monthly dues and discussed matters of mutual interest, adding that the association had been duly registered and was governed by a constitution.
He said the guild invited experts on health, who talked to members on important topics such as Hepatitis B, Diabetes and cancer, while the police also briefed them on crime and its prevention.
Mr Nketiah said since its formation, bereaved members had been assisted to organise befitting funerals for their departed family members, saying that when members met annually to wine and dine, they felt enthused about their meeting and hearty as they shared jokes and their retirement experiences.
He noted with satisfaction that the teaching profession was a noble one and a lucrative venture, saying that, “even Jesus was a teacher and so we are blessed as teachers and that is why teachers live long, even during their retirement”.
According to Mr Nketiah, because young people of today wanted to be rich overnight, they refused to enter the teaching profession, but rather opted for other job areas, forgetting that it was the teacher who taught them to achieve whatever position they now held.
He urged members of the guild to attend meetings regularly so that they could continue to share ideas and even discuss matters of national concern.
On the decision by the government to revert the duration of the senior high school from four years to three years, the Regional GNAT Secretary said it had always been the position of GNAT that students spend four years for their second cycle education since the three-year duration was not enough.
He, however, pointed out that since the government was the policy maker, it deemed it fit to choose three years, “so the government should ensure that materials, logistics and the needed infrastructure were provided for the smooth running of the three-year programme”.
He said a critical analysis would show that students did not spend exactly three years for the SHS course, and explained that they normally reported late October and wrote their examinations in April, stressing further that such a situation had given rise to extra classes to further burden parents and guardians.
According to him, education did not only mean teaching and learning but “it is also spiced with co-curricula activities which are also relevant. Therefore, the three-year period is not enough for senior high education”.