Principal appeals to striking teachers to return

A plea had gone to teachers of the Colleges of Education to end their industrial action and return to the lecture halls to save the academic calendar of the institutions.

Mr Emmanuel Kwasi Asiedu, Principal of the Akokerri College of Education, said the continued withdrawal of services is having a crippling effect on the academic programme.

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has been on a nationwide strike over what they say is the unjust treatment by the government, and vowed to stay away from the classrooms for as long as it takes to get a fair deal.

They are angered by their continued placement under the Ghana Education Service (GES), despite the tertiary status of the institutions, in which they teach.

Mr Asiedu told the Ghana News Agency that the situation where students are going to be kept in the schools longer than anticipated would certainly present a difficulty – budget overrun.

The Colleges were supposed to have started their end-of-year examination on July 2, but this has had to be postponed indefinitely.

He said, considering the external nature of the examination (conducted by the University of Cape Coast), the unfortunate development could also adversely affect the university’s academic calendar.