NAGRAT strike looms over deletion of names of teachers from payroll

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) will soon go on strike unless names of teachers deleted from the government’s payroll unfairly are restored.

This has been hinted by NAGRAT President Angel Carbonou.

Speaking to journalists in Accra on Thursday, February 17, 2022, the NAGRAT leader described the reasons given by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to remove the names of the affected teachers as flimsy.

He said some of the members of the association affected have not received a salary for up to 15 months although some are less.

“The reason for some of these deletions are flimsy and the procedure of going through the prescription of the code of conduct is usually violated. we have teachers who have done without salaries for three months, six months and we even have a case from secondary technical who has gone without salaries for the past fifteen months,” Angel Cabonou shared.

The NAGRAT president further stressed, “The leadership of the NAGRAT calls for the immediate restoration of the names.”

Angel Cabonou while bemoaning several other issues that need to be addressed in the education sector gave the indication that NAGRAT could soon lay down tools to demand better.

“There are a lot of issues in the educational sector that must be addressed but we are all pretending as though there are no issues.

“One of them is the decision by the Ministry of Education to appoint headmasters and headmistresses and they are starting with STEM schools but the Ministry has no power to appoint headmasters or headmistress.

“It is the function of the Ghana Education Service (GES), the GES has that power to appoint headmasters and headmistresses, not the Ministry of Education,” the NAGRAT President noted.

Already, the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) are on strike over the failure of the government to meet demands in relation to the condition of service of members.

If NAGRAT goes on strike, the education sector is bound to suffer more and will come under stress.

By Eric Nana Yaw Kwafo