Don’t Let Our Teachers Rust at Home – Education Expert Calls for Recruitment and Export Policy

Wisdom Koudjo Klu, an education expert in Ghana, has expressed concern over the increasing number of trained teachers in the country who have been left at home without postings since 2023, a phenomenon that he warned could destabilise Ghana’s journey towards improving academic achievement if timely intervention is not made.

He noted, teaching is a profession that flourishes on constant engagement with learners, lesson preparation and classroom interaction.

He says that when trained teachers spend more time out of the classroom, their professional skills and self-confidence may erode over time.

“Teaching is a practice-based profession. When these teachers stay at home for years without being in the classroom, we run the risk of weakening the skills we spent years developing,” Mr. Klu said.

He termed the development as a depressing wastage of human capital, noting that Ghana invests so much into training teachers through the Colleges of Education and universities. But these trained graduates are at present sitting at home, and unable to devote themselves to the betterment of education in the country.

Mr. Klu has thus called on the Ministry of Education (Ghana) and the Ghana education service to expeditiously clear the backlog.

In addition to domestic recruitment, the education expert also argues for a more strategic response.

He called on the Ministry of Education to proactively seek placements for Ghanaian teachers in other countries and also create a national policy that would provide clear guidelines on how best to recruit, prepare and export Ghana’s excess teachers.

“The Ministry of Education should start searching for opportunities for our teachers outside the country and come out with a clear national policy to prepare our excess teachers to be positioned with respect to international recruitments,” he stated.

Mr. Klu noted that in the United Kingdom, United States, Canada and the United Arab Emirates teacher shortages persist and qualified teachers are continually being recruited from elsewhere in the world.

A good teacher mobility policy could both mitigate unemployment among trained teachers in in the country; and create opportunities through remittances and exposure to international profession, he indicated.

Citing the example of the Philippines, the expert added that by exporting its labour in sectors like health and education, they have turned their skilled workforce into a large source of income for the country.

“If we play our cards right, our country can make this challenge an opportunity, fortifying our teachers, enhancing our economy through remittances and showing the world the great quality of Ghanaian educators,” he added.

Mr. Klu said that immediate policy intervention is needed now so the trained teachers do not find themselves sitting idle for years, warning that if the situation is left unaddressed, it will seriously affect learning outcomes in the country’s classrooms in years to come.

“We need to act before the cost of having trained teachers at home starts showing in our classrooms when finally recruited” he warned.