NAGRAT rejects Smile Gavua Dzisi appointment as GES Deputy DG

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has opposed Professor Smile Gavua Dzisi’s appointment as Deputy Director-General for Management Services at the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The teacher union opposition comes after the Ghana Education Service (GES) in a social media post sighted by Pretertiary.com congratulated the former Koforidua Technical University Vice-Chancellor on her appointment.

However, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has said although Professor Smile Gavua Dzisi has impressive credentials, she is unfit for the position of Deputy Director-General for Management Services at the Ghana Education Service (GES).

Speaking in an interview with Citi News, the National President of Teacher Union (NAGRAT) Angel Carbonu, called on the central government to withdraw the appointment of the newly appointed GES Deputy Director in Charge of Management Services

“The person who was removed from that position was a professional teacher who rose to the rank of a regional director and was appointed as Director of Management Services. The Ghana Education Service is not an extension of a political office.

It is a professional institution. It is within the public service, and we will not tolerate the appointment of somebody who is not a practitioner within the service space.

We are calling on the government to withdraw the appointment immediately. She is a professor. She operates very well in the university or technical universities but certainly not in the Ghana Education Service,” Carbonu stated.

Profile of Smile Gavua Dzisi

Prof. Smile Dzisi is a renowned academic with over twenty-five years of rich experience and expertise in university leadership, organizational re-engineering and gender advocacy.

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Social Sciences from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; a Master of Public Administration degree from University of Ghana, Legon, Ghana; and a PhD in Entrepreneurship and Innovation from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, where she also received an award for the most distinguished Ph.D. thesis.

Prof. Smile Dzisi was the former Vice-Chancellor/Rector of Koforidua Technical University, Koforidua, Ghana. She was the first female to be appointed a Rector of a Polytechnic in Ghana.

She ably led the transition of her Polytechnic into a Technical University. She also served as President of Data Link Institute of Business and Technology, a private University College in Tema, Ghana.

Prof. Dzisi is the first female to serve as chair of the Vice-Chancellors of Technical Universities of Ghana (VCTU Ghana). Prof. Dzisi served on the Executive Board of the Association of Technical Universities and Polytechnics in Africa (ATUPA) as West Africa Coordinator of Women in Technical Education and Development (WITED).

She is passionate about increasing women representation in STEM/TVET. She is a Fellow of renowned national and international professional bodies.

She is an educational and gender consultant of international repute and has consulted for over 30 private (national and multilateral) and state institutions such as Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection, Commonwealth of Learning, UNFPA, Africa Education Watch and KfW Germany.

She has repeatedly received national and international awards for her contribution to educational leadership, entrepreneurship and innovation, and the promotion of girls and women advancement. She was elected in 2020 as a model for TVET by COTVET/GIZ in Ghana.

Prof Smile Dzisi is currently into full time Consultancy as the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Gender Consult (LEG Consult) in Accra and a Patroness of I Believe Global Foundation, an international gender advocacy non-profit organization based in Sweden and Ghana.

Her specialized areas of consultancy include organizational re-engineering, business development, gender transformative education, gender, social inclusion policy development, and education.