Teachers at Prof Stephen Addei's school sacked due to coronavirus

Millions of workers all over the world are feeling the impact of the outbreak of coronavirus on the economy as that has triggered mass layoffs.

In view of this, some staff of the Ghana Christian International High School located on the Afienya-Dodowa Road, owned by Prof. Stephen Adei, have been laid off.

Professor Emeritus Stephen Adei is the Board Chairman of the Ghana Revenue Authority.

Checks by GhanaWeb reveal that the school on March 27, 2020, sent a memo to their staff informing them of the intended lay-offs due to the inability of the school’s finances to support the levels of teacher's emoluments.

The memo which was dated 23rd March 2020, stated that the decision was taken by the board of the school on March 22, 2020.

Four days after, some teachers received their letters of separation from the Director of Finance Bismark Owusu Sekyere Adu and signed by the Chief Operations Officer, Dr Joseph Mensah-Ansah.

The statement available to GhanaWeb further added, "however if the situation normalize anytime soon, you will have the opportunity to reapply."

Laid off staff were assured that they will be compensated with their March salary and top-up with half of the next month's salary.

"You shall be paid your salary for March 2020 and half of your month salary in spite of that Coronavirus epidemic, which is a force majeure situation, affects your employment contract. We wish you all the best as you seek employment elsewhere."

An affected teacher who wishes to remain anonymous told GhanaWeb that "As a school that operates under the principles of Christianity and have a mission of educating young people in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, the worst they could have done was to give unpaid leave of absence for her workers.

"However, their actions have defeated the motto (For God, Family and Country) and mission of the school by traumatizing these hardworking people in these critical times of the Covid-19 pandemic."

The teacher added, "When other men are contributing to making the lives of the less privileged easier in these times, our president's choice for NDPC chairman and the GRA board chairman has decided to push some of the people who work for his school into a very bad state. A man who claims to be a beam of godliness and education just threw his educators under the bus."

As at the time of writing this report, efforts by GhanaWeb to reach the management of the school were unsuccessful.

Read below all the documents detailing the layoff:

Schools across Ghana close down on Akufo-Addo’s order

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo directed the management of schools in the country to shut down effective Monday, March 16, 2020, until further notice.

He said, "all universities, Senior High Schools and basic schools ie public and private schools, will be closed Monday, March 16, 2020, till further notice. The Ministry of Education, in collaboration with the Ministry of Communication, has been tasked to roll out distance learning programmes."

The President added that "BECE and WASSCE candidates will be allowed to attend school to prepare for their examinations but with prescribed social distancing protocols."