The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) will hold its third quadrennial and 50th national delegate's conference from Sunday, January 3 to Friday, January 8, 2010. The conference is on the theme "Investing in people to achieve quality education by 2010," and will be held at the University of Ghana Business School auditorium. The opening ceremony will be performed by President John Atta Mills on Tuesday, January 5 at the National Theatre in Accra. The General Secretary of GNAT, Irene Duncan-Adanusa, announced these when she briefed a section of the media on the programme for the event. She said about 750 delegates and observers and representatives of GNAT's sister-organizations including the Canadian Teachers Federation, the Nigerian Union of Teachers and the South African Democratic Teachers Union are expected to attend the conference. She said the conference would discuss issues relating to the development of education including the review of GNAT's development and action plans for the next five years, implementation of the National Pension Act, the New Education Act (Act 778) and the Single Spine Salary Structure. Mrs Duncan-Adanusah explained that the national delegate's conference is the highest decision-making body of the GNAT and also the organ that formulates policies for governance of the association. "The conference is held every four years and it is at this forum that major policy decisions affecting education, the teaching profession and other socio-economic issues arc discussed and necessary decisions taken," she stressed, Touching on the theme for the conference, she said "We strongly believe that the development of any country in this era of globalisation depends on the calibre of its human resource base," "There is, therefore, the need for us to invest in our people at the school levels, particularly as the year 2015 is far approaching. "We feel that the time has come for us to get our priorities right so far as education is concerned if we are not to be left behind particularly in the area of information and communications technology," she emphasized. Mrs Duncan-Adanusa pointed out that the personal development of the individual must challenge us to help in the development of our educational institutions. She said the conference would therefore discuss the various aspects of investing in the human resource base and come out with solutions to address the problems. According to her, this is informed by the realization that "education lifts people out of poverty and ignorance, changes the outlook and horizon of people who live in poverty and causes an increase in income and thereby standard of living.” Mrs Duncan-Adanusa announced that 40 activists of GNAT and some devoted supporting staff would be honoured for their dedication and meritorious service. Source: The Ghanaian Times