About 567 professional teachers denied jobs

Wa, Sept. 19, GNA - Mr. Joseph Kweku Adjei, National President of the GES for postings have been denied the chance to go and teach. The explanation has been that their names had been deleted from the pay roll, and their salaries ceased, when they entered the universities without study leave.

"These frustrated professional teachers are languishing at home. We therefore urge Government and the GES as a matter of urgency, to review this so called policy and tap the full capacity of these teachers for the sake of mother Ghana", Mr. Adjei said. These were contained in a speech read on his behalf by Madam Portia Anafo, Vice National President of GNAT, to delegates of the 3rd Quadrennial 50th Regional Conference of the Upper West Region at Wa on Thursday.

The conference was on the theme: "Professional and socio-economic challenges of the teacher in the face of globalization - The way forward," which was attended by members from the nine districts in the region.

Mr. Adjei bemoaned the endemic shortage of professional teachers and said the situation was a handicap which, if allowed to continue, would ruin the country's educational system.

"Ironically, professional teachers who entered the universities using their own resources because the quota system did not allow them to be paid for the four years, have been refused posting after graduation." He particularly mentioned teacher shortages in particular subject areas such as the Sciences, mathematics and English Language, as well as the technical subjects, and suggested that the current quota system that regulated study leave for teachers should not include these specialized subject areas otherwise it will render government's efforts at achieving quality education useless.

Mr. Adjei, expressed concern about political interferences in certain areas of the Ghana Education Service (GES) set-up, and said the Association would, as a matter of principle, resist any attempt by any political office holder to circumvent these processes for personal gain. The GES, he said, has a process of recruiting, posting and transferring its employees, and that it also has a grievance handling procedure by which all employees who are found to have contravened the code of discipline are subjected to in order to ensure fairness to all. Therefore, Mr. Adjei called on members of GNAT not to allow political persuasions to divide them for, after all, "Governments come and governments go but the profession remains."

The GNAT President commended the government for launching the new National Pension Scheme, and called it a great achievement by the government. He asked teachers to be on the guard to ensure that the scheme was implemented soon, saying: "It will be unwise to sit by and watch the old scheme rolling month after month and thereby aggravating the plight of teachers in the country."

On the implementation of the single spine salary structure, Mr. Adjei called on the government to be more committed to keeping to its part of the bargain and to follow the roadmap for the implementation in January 2010 to forestall any future labour unrest in the country.