If GES Continues to Ignore University-Trained Teachers, Ghana’s Education Future Will Collapse

A silent crisis is growing in Ghana, and if urgent action is not taken, the nation will soon pay a painful price. If the Ghana Education Service continues to neglect the recruitment of university-trained teachers, there will come a time when no serious student will want to pursue Education courses at the university level. The warning is clear, the danger is real, and the future consequences will be devastating.

Every year, thousands of young Ghanaians enter universities to study Education. They sacrifice years of their lives, pay fees, endure academic pressure, complete teaching practice, and graduate with hope that they will serve their country in the classroom. They believe that after dedicating themselves to a noble profession, the state will absorb them into the education system.

Instead, many complete school only to return home and remain unemployed for years. Certificates gather dust. Dreams begin to fade. Parents who struggled to support them become heartbroken. Graduates who once carried hope now carry frustration, humiliation, and uncertainty.

What message does this send to the next generation?

When government proudly announces recruitment of only 7,000 teachers while well over 100,000 trained teachers remain at home searching for work, it creates anger and despair. It tells young people that spending years studying Education may end in unemployment. It tells parents that investing in Education courses may be a risky mistake. It tells brilliant students to avoid teaching altogether.

And they will.

The brightest minds will turn away from Education programmes and chase fields they believe offer better opportunities. Universities will begin to witness declining interest in teacher training courses. Faculties of Education may struggle to attract quality applicants. The nation will then face a shortage of highly trained teachers in Mathematics, Science, ICT, Languages, and Special Needs Education.

That crisis will not happen overnight. It will happen gradually, then suddenly.

The tragedy is that many schools across Ghana still need teachers. Rural communities are understaffed. Some classrooms are overcrowded. Some schools lack subject specialists. Children in deprived areas continue to suffer. Yet qualified graduates remain unemployed at home. This is not just unfortunate. It is a failure of planning, policy, and priorities.

No nation develops by humiliating its teachers before they even enter the classroom.

Teachers build doctors, lawyers, engineers, judges, journalists, and presidents. If Ghana discourages those who want to teach, then Ghana is weakening the very foundation of national development.

GES and government must act now. Recruitment must be regular, transparent, and based on real national needs. University-trained teachers must not be treated as forgotten citizens after years of study and sacrifice. Clear pathways from graduation to employment must be established.

If this neglect continues, students will stop choosing Education. And when Ghana finally needs teachers most, there may be too few willing to answer the call.

A country that abandons its trained teachers is quietly destroying its own future.

By Mileba Godwin Kwame, President CREP Africa