The Ministry of Education has assured striking teachers that government will continue to engage with the three Teacher Unions – the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) who have declared a nationwide strike effective Monday, December 9, 2019.
According to Public Relations Officer at the Ministry, Ekow Vincent Assafuah, engaging the unions is the best option for government, despite having held a series of meetings with the leadership of the teacher groups where the payment of the said arrears was discussed.
“We have decided that the best way to bring about a resolution to this matter is to continue to engage them and we hope that they will also come to the table with some good faith,” he said on the Citi Breakfast Show.
Explaining why the arrears have been long overdue, the PRO blamed the situation on the challenges with the 3-month pay policy and the lack of proper procedures which commenced during the previous administration.
“The legacy arrears, was a particular challenge the previous administration faced. It brought about the 3- month pay policy. What it meant was that, if you are a teacher, and you have worked for 3 years, they didn’t care the number of years you have worked, all that they cared about was that, there is a 3 month policy so, you are supposed to be paid for 3 months,” he said.
“And most of the recruitment that happened around that time lacked proper procedures. That led to the procurement of teachers because you can’t give somebody an employment letter, without a financial clearance from the Ministry and so on humanitarian grounds, we agreed and decided to continue with those anomalies because if we decided to be strict, by how the processes are, then we should have cancelled a lot of these appointments that were made from 2012 to 2015,” he added.
He further noted that despite that and further explanations of the challenges to the unions, the Ministry decided to continue with the anomalies thereby expecting the unions to be patient.
“So if we have decided to be paying all these on humanitarian grounds and it is becoming very difficult for us, that the teacher unions pay is in such a manner when we thought about them in a good way,” he said.
GES surprised at the teachers’ decision
Earlier, the Ghana Education Service (GES) expressed shock at the teachers’ choice to strike on Monday 9th December, 2019.
However, the Ministry of Education has pronounced the strike as baseless.
Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Ekow Vincent Assafuah, said the assertions made by the teachers are wrong.
Why would they declare a strike? On what basis are they declaring the strike? So they are not acting in good faith. I think that it is a breach of their own principle and commitment to the GES. One relevant question that I want us to ask them is what happens to the poor child who is waiting in the classroom to be taught?” he asked.”
