Open Letter to the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama
Dear, Mr. President,
I watched your recent speech on education reforms and your passionate call to give more power to district education directors. I must say, I respectfully disagree.
Yes, our education system needs reform. Yes, we need to manage teacher recruitment, teacher absenteeism and improve supervision. But handing over recruitment and full authority to district directors is not the solution. It’s a big risk.
Let’s be honest with ourselves. Corruption is still a major issue in our public service. Giving more people the power to re recruit at the district level will only open more doors for favoritism, nepotism ,bribery and corruption as well as abuse and intimidation. Some of these directors already abuse their positions, forcing teachers to attend paid workshops and threatening those who fail to. Adding more power will only increase that abuse.
We’ve seen this before. That’s exactly why recruitment was centralised to stop such practices. So why return to what has failed?
Instead of decentralising recruitment, I’m humbly suggesting that let’s fix the system we already have. Let’s reduce the paperwork and the beurocratic bottlenecks. Let’s go digital because it’s possible.
Imagine a GES platform where the Director-General can log in and see information about every teacher, every school, and every vacancy across the country in real time. Teachers applying for recruitment or transfers or promotion and resolution to salary related issues should do it online. No need for long letters passing through layers of offices from district to regional to GES headquarters to controller.
The problem is not centralisation. The problem is slow, outdated paper processes. Digital tools like GESMIS and a real-time teacher database can make the system faster, cleaner, and more efficient.
Let’s empower the system, not just the people. Let’s recruit the right, competent people who will protect the vision, not abuse it.
Mr. President, I’m yet to see the full report. When I do, I’ll respond further. But for now, I urge you: don’t decentralise recruitment. Digitalise it. Streamline it. Make it work.
Thank you.
By Jerry Akporhor
Founder and Lead Educator of Informed Teachers Network
