Government has cleared the salary arrears of 70,000 teachers since assuming office, the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia has said.

According to him, the Akufo-Addo-led administration inherited salary arrears owed some 100,000 teachers when they assumed office in January 2017.

“As we speak we have reduced that through the validation process to just 30,000 teachers so we are on course and should eliminate that soon,” the Vice President said Friday at the commemoration of the World Teacher’s Day at the Presbyterian Boys’ Senior High, Legon (Presec) in Accra.

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Addressing the audience on the theme “The Right to Education Means Right to Qualified Teachers,” Dr Bawumia noted that the NPP government’s policy on teachers has increasingly sought to address the welfare of teachers and upgrade the standard of their training.

He stated that he has no doubt that the newly introduced teachers’ licensure exams “will raise the standard of the profession to be at par with others”.

“The aim of the licensure exams is to enable candidates acquire a professional license and prepare to meet the demands of the national teaching standard as well as the global standards of possessing the minimum knowledge, skills, values and attitude necessary to deliver effectively in schools,” he stated.

“No country can ensure quality education and ignore teachers,” he added.

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He reiterated that government was committed to increasing the training standards of teachers which is why the government is upgrading the Colleges of Education to University Colleges.

That game-changing move will make a Bachelor’s Degree the minimum requirement to teach at the basic level in Ghana, the Vice President noted.

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Dr Bawumia added that the celebration of the ‘Teachers’ Day’ is to motivate the teachers to give off their best.

He also lauded the awards scheme for teachers, adding that “corporate bodies and individuals should donate to the course in recognising good work of teachers”.