About 94,000 private school teachers lose jobs due to COVID-19 – GNACOPS

About 94,000 teachers from over 4,300 private schools in the country have not been paid due to the challenges imposed by the coronavirus outbreak.

This is according to the Executive Director of the Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS), Enoch Kwasi Gyetuah.

He said managers of the various schools have had no choice but to release the teachers due to financial constraints.

To reduce the burden imposed by the COVID-19 induced school closures, the council has begun processing over 6,000 applications from private schools to access the government’s stimulus package.

Mr. Gyetuah in a Citi News interview appealed to government to prioritize private schools in the disbursement of the package.

“As we speak now, the database that we can show, which we have given to Ministry of Finance in relation to seeking some grant package for these teachers is 94,000 teachers from 4,300 schools,” he said.

Enoch Gyetuah in a Citi News interview said private schools must be prioritized in the issuance of grants and COVID-19 relief packages for businesses.

He indicated that with private schools ordered to shut down since mid-March 2020, there has been no income for teachers and other staff of private schools to be paid.

“Our expectation is that the private education sector will be given a preferred advantage over other sectors. The reason is that all the other sectors that have been given the nod to apply are in operation. Since 15^th of March, we have been asked to stay home and because it is a private work, if you don’t go to work, you don’t get anything,” he added.

Meanwhile, the council has published the names of 6000 schools which are seeking to access governmet’s GHS600 million stimulus package for SMEs.

The said list covers those who have successfully submitted their information through the council’s portal and have met the necessary requirements such as TIN numbers, company registration details, GPS location, bank details among others.

The Director of International Relations/Business Corporation of the Council, Mr. Steve Revs has given assurances that the private schools and Government are collaborating and since the NBSSI has opened its doors for companies to apply for part of the GHS600 million government stimulus package.