New pay for teachers while they wait salaries under single spine

Ho, Apr 3, GNA - Negotiations have opened for public sector teachers to be put on a new pay structure while government and other stakeholders fine-tune the new single spine pay regime in the offing. Nana Pobee Asomaning Darko, Volta Regional Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), said this at the 37th Annual Conference of Managers and Heads of Anglican Higher Institutions (COMHAI) that opened in Ho on Thursday.

He said the new salaries would help teachers cope with the rising cost of living while waiting for government to implement the overhauled pay structure going along with the public sector reforms. Nana Darko called on all teacher unions and associations to act in concert to champion the cause of teachers and that the welfare of the teacher represented the pivot of all reforms in the educational sector. The five-day meeting being attended by Heads of Anglican Higher Institutions and Regional Managers of Anglican Schools among others is under the theme "New Educational Reform, the Role of the Anglican Church.

Mr Mike Abban, General Manager of Anglican Schools, said the Church would facilitate the provision of more resources to enable their schools regain lost glories. He said growing indiscipline in schools was a grave one and that mission schools had the duty to infuse piety in their students as part of their education.

Mr Abban listed breaking bounds, dogging classes and worship and drug use as some of the vices common in schools. Mr Abban blamed a section of the media for seeking to vilify disciplinarians, many of whom had suffered all manner of backlashes from students including beatings, stoning and loss of properties. He said reforms were necessary for any policy and pledged that the Anglican Church would help provide the resources to promote the current educational reforms.

Mr Abban said the Church was in the process of providing all its schools with ICT centers. Miss Rosemond Keteku, Ho Municipal Director Education, appealed to churches with schools to ensure that the educational reforms succeeded. She said discipline was an integral part of education and urged schools to build uprightness in their pupils

Mr Dan Yorgbe, Volta Regional Chairman of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), called on education authorities to strengthen supervision at all levels of education in the country. Rt Rev Matthias Medadues-Badohu, Anglican Bishop of Ho, called on the education authorities to give uncensored administrative support to the reform policy. He said teachers who called at offices to transact business were often frustrated by bureaucratic attitudes of schedule officers, making these teachers use days resolving one issue instead of just hours.