4 Effects Of Degree As New Entry Requirement For Teachers On G.E.S Staff.

First degree as the new entry requirement to work as Ghana Education Service staff will have various effects on the Ghana Education Service. Though there will be positive effects, there will be varying degrees of negative effects on the staff with respect to the various status quos.

Ghana Education Service staff, therefore, need to abreast themselves about the consequences of this new policy on their prospects in the teaching profession.

1. Effects on appointment to various positions in G.E.S: it is a known fact that most positions in G.E.S are filled with people with ranks considered to be a compromised rank due to the fact that the required rank of people needed for the position is inadequate, probably around the geographical structure of the Ghana Education Service. Even where there is an adequate number of people with the ranks needed for the job, the future implications in the near future for the new policy will mean that people with higher ranks will be available for positions that lower ranks can occupy currently. The typical example is the fact that principal superintendent ranked staff can apply and be appointed as headteachers at the basic level, since most staff at basic level are below the rank of principal superintendent. However, when all or majority of basic school staff are degree holders and hence they are captured as principal superintendent rank, it will only be ideal for higher ranked staff above principal superintendent, ADI and ADII, to be desired, required and appointed to head a basic school full of staff with principal superintendent rank. The trend will, therefore, be expected to continue in that order for qualifications to occupy other positions.

2. Effect on promotion by level of qualification (upgrading): though promotion of Ghana Education Service staff who are below the rank of principal superintendent is based on performance largely influenced by long service on an existing grade, staff who pursue further education to obtain a first degree have the chance to jump even more than one grade to the rank of principal superintendent. The implication of the new policy in G.E.S which regards the entry requirement to be first degree, new entrants will have the golden opportunity to leap frog existing teachers who could not upgrade their level of education. Even though there must not be unhealthy competition or envy for the new entrants, it will be a matter of time that old qualifications will be phased out as was done to Cert-A holders with the introduction of a previous policy that considers Diploma in Education as an entry requirement.

3. Effect on promotion by long service: the existing policy on the pass rates for various ranks is very likely to change with the introduction of a degree as an entry requirement to work as G.E.S staff. The pass rates in G.E.S promotions are structured such that, only a few people will attain the highest rank when a particular batch of recruits reach the maximum number of years in service. The clearest example is the fact that there can only be one Director General, two Deputy Director Generals, sixteen Regional Directors and two-hundred and sixteen District Directors at the time a particular batch of recruits reach their maximum number of years in the service compared with their huge numbers at the time they were being recruited into the service. If all of a particular batch of recruits passed at every level of promotion opportunity, all the total number of recruits would have qualified for the few positions that will be available at the top.

4. Effect on promotion at the principal superintendent level: the rank of principal superintendent will become the base or foundation for all G.E.S staff with this new policy of first degree being an entry requirement. The complications that will be associated with this new normal will be the number of failed candidates from principal superintendent hoping to be promoted to the rank of Assistant Director II, similar to the challenges being faced by the lower-ranked personnel currently hoping to be promoted to their next rank. As the largest population segment of G.E.S staff, even an application of a unified percentage rate of failure will mean a higher number of candidates will fail from the principal superintendent candidates aspiring to be promoted.

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