6th March In Danger

THOUSANDS OF Primary and Junior High school pupils in Obuasi will miss this year’s Independence Day celebration as their teachers yesterday announced a boycott of the march past in protest against what they see as appalling discrepancies in their salaries following their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure.

The aggrieved teachers also announced the withdrawal of their services until further notice and hoped to take a decision next Tuesday on what action to take, following the resolution in the face of the agitation.

The country’s teachers raised red flags after they discovered that salaries paid to them by the end of February 2011 were far below expectation, despite being migrated onto the single spine pay platform.

Wearing red armbands during a demonstration in Obuasi, the teachers said they had been disappointed by President John Atta Mills, who had earlier promised them of improved lives and better conditions of service when teachers migrated onto the new salary structure.

“As a former lecturer, who has perfect knowledge about the plight of teachers with regard to condition of service and poor remuneration, we massively supported you so that we could feel part of your better Ghana agenda.

“It was in line with this high expectation generated by your assurance, coupled with wide media blitz by government functionaries …help to put to rest all agitations for higher wages and salaries by teachers at least in the last two years,” the teachers said in a petition presented to the Municipal Chief Executive of Obuasi.

It was received by Emmanuel Ntosu, Deputy Co-ordinating Director of Assembly, on behalf of the MCE, John Alexander Ackon who was out of town at the time.

The disgruntled teachers believed the Fair Wages and Salary Commission, the body responsible for calculating and determining salaries of government employees, had not treated them fairly, if they compared themselves to other government workers that had been put on the new pay structure.

As part of their protest, the teachers asked the students and pupils to go home and also drove away others rehearsing for the Independence Day parade, aside marching through the principal streets of Obuasi with placards. Some students joined the demonstration in solidarity with their teachers.

The situation was not different in Kumasi as teaching and learning suffered a setback yesterday when teachers, for the second day running, boycotted classes in protest against distortions in their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

As at 10am, most schools in the metropolis had been closed following the teachers’ resolution to stay away from the classroom till the Mills administration addressed their concerns.

Whereas some of the teachers decided not to report to school at all, others reported at their respective schools but declined to teach, thereby making the students sit in their classrooms idle.

When it became confirmed that the teachers were not prepared to rescind their decision to boycott classes, authorities of the schools had no other choice than to dismiss the students and ask them to go home.

In many of the schools DAILY GUIDE visited, the students were spotted playing all kinds of games.

A section of the students whose parents are traders in the Central Business District (CBD) joined them in undertaking their trading activities, whilst others spent the day at game centres.

In the light of the above development, rehearsal towards a befitting March 6 celebration in the various schools could not come on because there were no teachers around to supervise the exercise.

In Accra, agitated teachers defied government’s assurance to them that it would correct discrepancies in their salaries and disrupted a rehearsal by some students at the Independence Square.

The teachers, dressed in red and black, danced to ‘soloku’ music and staged the disruption in what they described as a peaceful procession.

At the time DAILY GUIDE got to the Independence Square, the students had already stopped the rehearsal whilst some had already boarded their buses, ready to return to their various destinations, with others who were without buses seen standing idle, watching the moving buses on their way out of the place.

Some of the agitated teachers who spoke to his paper explained that their actions were to demonstrate to government that they meant what they had said, particularly their decision not to participate in this year’s Independence anniversary.

From the Independence Square, the teachers proceeded to the Ghana National Association of Teachers’ (GNAT) office in Accra, chanting war songs and describing the leaders’ of GNAT as traitors.

At GNAT Hall, the agitated teachers prevented the administrative officers from discharging their duties, destroying several office documents and furniture in the process.

They wielded placards some of which read ‘Mills is a big liar but GNAT leaders are to be blamed’, ‘Spine Swine’, ‘Adanusa Must Go’, ‘We are fed up with her’, ‘We need cash in our pockets’, ‘Mills, remember we are king makers’.

The teachers however rescinded their intention to march to the Castle to petition government, explaining that they wanted to fully prepare and get the police to protect them before doing so.

The leaders of the agitated teachers told this paper that all their members would on Tuesday, March 8, 2011, meet at the Obra Spot, near the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra, early in the morning and March through the principal streets of Accra from where they would present their petition at the Castle.

An excerpt of the yet-to-be-presented petition alleged that the plight of teachers was now worse than before.