NAGRAT calls for review of monthly allowance of members

Accra, Oct 6, GNA - Mr Kwame Alorvi, President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers' (NAGRAT) on Tuesday appealed to the Minister of Education (MOE) to impress upon the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) to review and pay the appropriate monthly allowances to teachers.

He called on government to demonstrate goodwill towards teachers by increasing their one Ghana cedi monthly allowance, to an appreciable level commensurate with the current economic conditions.

Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra, Mr Alorvi said the appeal had become necessary because MoFEP had failed to comply with a Ghana Education Service (GES) directive to pay teachers their due. He said a housemaster was paid a monthly allowance of one Ghana cedi, senior housemaster, GHc 1.50 and headmaster, between three to five Ghana cedis but MoFEP had reduced the amount to GHp 30, GHp 70 and one Ghana cedi respectively.

Mr Alorvi said car maintenance allowance of GHc 40 a month had been reduced to GHc 7 and in schools where more than two teachers owned cars, the allowances were not paid because of lack of funds. He said President John Evans Atta Mills directive on Monday that the MOE and GES should pay teachers their entitlements could not yield any positive results because the directive was not to increase the allowances of teachers.

"Although teachers appreciate President Mills concern, they were expecting that the directive would lead to an increase on their entitlements, "he said.

He expressed the hope that negotiations to increase emoluments and other packages for teachers, which begun three years ago and expected to end this month, would yield positive results for teachers.

Mr Alorvi expressed concern about the inability of the GES to engage some newly trained teachers who were interviewed. He said others applied but were not appointed due to lack of funds to promote them and called for urgent measures to address the issues to motivate teachers to perform better.