Govt to pay transfer grants to teachers posted to rural areas – MoE

As part of an effort to motivate teachers, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum says the central government is considering paying transfer grants to teachers who are willing to be posted to deprived communities.

Speaking at the National Teachers Day celebration in Takoradi, in the Western Region, the Education Minister said the move is aimed at meeting the teacher-student ratio in the country.

“If there is a need to pay transfer grants, we will pay it so that teachers can go to the places that need them the most. And we can forever put to rest this illusion that there is a shortage when there is no shortage.

There are so many people who are waiting to be posted to go and teach and when we get clearance we will do that. We are one of the few countries in the world where you can get 100 teachers today if you want them,” he said at the event.

In a related development, the Minister for Education says his outfit this year will introduce a placement system dubbed E-deployment to enable new teachers to be recruited by the Ghana Education Service to select rural areas to be posted to.

The E-deployment, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum in charge of Education said will come with an incentive and other juicy packages to motivate the newly qualified posted teachers to make the teaching profession attractive to them.

“We will soon start what we call a teacher incentive program to ensure promotion and study leave of new teachers posted to rural places to are prioritised, we are working to make teaching attractive,” the Teaching Minister stated.

In an interview with Kumasi-based Wontumi FM monitored by AcademicWeek, he said the Ministry of Finance would grant the Education Ministry financial clearance for the Ghana Education Service to recruit graduate teachers.

“The Ghana Education Service will be given a financial clearance to recruit graduate teachers who have completed National Service and passed the Ghana teacher licensure examination (GTLE),” the Education Minister stated.

He also added that “the Ministry of Education will soon start what we call teacher incentive program to ensure promotion and study leave of new teachers posted to rural places to are prioritised, we are working to make teaching attractive.”