NAGRAT, 2 others strike

Some teacher unions across the country have withdrawn their services.

This follows a strike action declared by the three teacher unions.

They include the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT).

The unions had hinted at plans to embark on an indefinite strike over the appointment of the new Acting Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) Dr Eric Nkansah.

They had kicked against the new appointment a few weeks ago and given the government till, Friday, 4 November 2022 to take action on the matter.

The Minister for Labour Relations Ignatius Baffour Awuah, had called on the various Teacher Unions to exercise restraint whiles the matter is being resolved.

This came ahead of a proposed meeting between the Minister for Labour Relations and leadership of the various Teacher Unions opposed to the appointment of the Acting Director-General.

The meeting was scheduled to be held, Friday, 4 November 2022.

However, announcing their next line of action, at a press conference held in Accra, the Teacher unions indicated that, the strike action will not be called off if government fails to address their concerns.

President of GNAT Rev Isaac Owusu said: “It is unacceptable for a banker to be appointed as a Director-General of the Ghana Education Service instead of an educationist at the same time when many teachers who did the same courses and related ones were rejected by GES because it is not related to education.”

Rev Owusu further noted that: “We stated that both the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service should apologise to teachers for accepting the very qualifications they rejected when teachers presented them…We have been compelled under the current circumstances to publicly communicate to Ghanaians on our intention to go on strike, having reached the November 4 deadline we gave the government.”

He added: “Consequently, we have decided to embark on strike from today, Friday, November 4, 2022. By this, we are informing the general public that we are withdrawing all our services in all the pre-tertiary institutions.”