Teachers in Ghana: Issues of training,remuneration and effectiveness

This study addresses educational reform in Ghana with reference to one of the most important potential agents of change in any system of schooling—its teachers. The empirical data on secondary teachers and trainee teachers used here is taken from a larger case study of the attitudes and opinions of teachers and parents in the education system of Ghana. Secondary teachers in Ghana are seriously underpaid, but not necessarily undervalued in the community. They take on other jobs to support themselves and their families, yet they do not lack commitment to the professional task of teaching. It is argued that financial pressure on teachers to find other sources of remuneration militates against their capacity to act as agents of change in the rapidly reforming Ghanaian state. Furthermore, teaching is not often seen as a financially rewarding profession by a new generation of secondary-school graduates. The author recommends that teachers’ salaries be raised and infrastructure support for schools increased.