Four Teacher Unions have expressed their dislike for the introduction of the Ghana Partnership Schools, a programme to be introduced by the Ministry of Education which will relinquish over 100 schools under private management.

According to the Ministry of Education however, it will initiate the programme this year, calling a bluff to the Teacher Unions.

According to the Ministry, the programme will among other benefits help the Teachers and will further enhance learning.

Accoding to Public Relations Officer of the Ministry  Vincent Ekow Assafuah, the the GPS is only meant to aid 60 schools in the country.

He said,“it is the Ghana Education Service that is the policy implementer. What we are doing is that, we are allowing the World Bank to fund about 7,000 of the schools and by so doing they are going to provide learning grants to them and train teachers. The GPS is just for 60 schools the country and they are going to help these schools to improve learning outcomes; and that is what we are doing".

The policy which will kick start in September and piloted in basic schools will be done in Ashanti, Northern, and Central regions.

The President of the National Association of Graduate Teacher (NAGRAT)  Angel Carbonu has maintained that the teachers in the country will do everything to make the government withdraw its stands on the policy.

According to him, the policy will deprive teachers of their dignity.

He said,  “We are determined [to fight this] because our jobs are on the line, our dignity is on the line, our professionalism is on the line and so we are ready to take this to the hill”.

Also, the Teachers & Educational Workers Union of Ghana (TEWU), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT-GH), the National Association of Graduate Teachers, NAGRAT, and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) have cautioned government against the implementation of the Ghana Partnership Schools programme.

The General Secretary of GNAT, David Ofori Acheampong, said that the initiative is targeted at commercializing and privatizing public education in Ghana, thus their call for it to be aborted.

He said “The project is purported to last for three years after which it may be institutionalized permanently. The unions find the Ghana partnership project as a subtle and eventual privatization, commercialization and commodification of public education in Ghana. We are amazed that the government is trumpeting the implementation of the project. In all these endeavors, the major stakeholders, GNAT, NAGRAT, TEWU and CCT-GH have not been involved in the two-year planning process of the project. We find this unfortunate and unacceptable.”