The frantic release of GHC 50 million by the Ministry of Finance to stop Ghanaian teachers from their nationwide strike has failed as NAGRAT rubbishes the amount as “Chicken change”.
Speaking in interviews monitored by Whatsup News, the President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu, said the amount released by the government was only a fraction of their demands.
He said of top priority is the human resource and conditions of service concerns, rather than just settling part of their long-withheld salaries.
“This [release of funds] is not the solution. This is addressing aspects of the problem for all teachers. If the public services commission sits with the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service and other stakeholders and cedes off that human resource management to the ministry, to the Ghana Education Service, we would have been solving this problem to a very large extent.”
Angry Ghanaian teachers this week embarked on a nationwide industrial action due to a plethora of unfavourable conditions the government had subjected them to, including refusing to pay their salaries for over one year, refusing to adjust their collective bargaining agreements to suit the current times, refusing to pay them allowances for the extra roles they are playing in the government’s free education policy, etc.
On Tuesday, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) officially started their industrial action across the country.
It is unclear if there would be further negotiations with the government to call off their strike despite the release of the funds. It is also unclear the type of concessions that the government is willing to make to convince the teachers to return to the classrooms as students reopen from vacation in a few days.
Whatsup News gathered that NAGRAT and some GNAT officials may be meeting the National Labour Commission (NLC) today to discuss whether or not to rescind their industrial action.
Continuous industrial action of teachers will deal a hefty blow on the government’s ambitious educational policy of Free Senior High Schools. The policy has seen an explosion in school enrolments and a serious pressure on teachers as they are forced to work extra hours.