8.7 C
London
Friday, March 29, 2024

Striking teachers still absent in schools in Kumasi

By
Priscilla Obour/Portia Ofori/Mabel Owusu/Dominic Antwi Agyei, GNA

Kumasi, Dec. 15, GNA
– Majority of striking teachers in most basic and senior high schools in the
Kumasi Metropolis, have not yet resumed work despite the National Labour
Commission’s (NLC) directive to the three striking teacher unions to call off
the action with immediate effect.

The Unions – Ghana
National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate
Teachers (NAGRAT) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), last Friday
declared a nationwide strike to back their demand for the payment of what it
termed legacy arrears, owed to its members by the government.

The areas covering
salaries and allowances, according to the unions had not been paid since 2012
to 2016, regardless of efforts to prevail on government to effect the payment.

The strike action
started on Monday December 9, however, on Tuesday December 10, Mr Andy Kwabena
Asamoah, the National Chairman of the NLC, described the ongoing strike of the
Unions as illegal and ordered the striking unions to call off the strike and
instruct their members to go back to the classroom and teach.

This was after a
meeting between the NLC, representatives of the Ghana Education Service (GES),
Ministry of Education (MOE), the Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC),    

A visit by the Ghana
News Agency team to some basic and senior high schools Kumasi, revealed that a
few of the teachers were present at school, but were not teaching, while a good
number did not show up at all.

A handful of the
pupils were in the classroom learning on their own.

In most of the
schools visited, the pupils did not also show up in school at all.

However, a few
Junior High Schools (JHS) teachers were seen teaching the final year students
because of the impending Basic School Certificate Examination (BECE).

A teacher of the one
the schools, who spoke to the Ghana News Agency on condition of anonymity,
explained that most of his colleagues are reluctant to resume teaching because
they had not heard anything from their union leaders.

GNA

Latest news

Related news