Teachers who want to stay home should be ready to forgo 50% salary – Professor Adei

Professor Stephen Adei believes teachers who want to keep staying home due to the COVID-19 pandemic must be ready to take pay cuts.

According to him, public workers are not automatically entitled to their salaries unless they work for it.

Currently, all schools across the country have been directed to close down in a bid to curb the spread of the Coronavirus.

As a result, teachers have been home since March, with some teacher unions kicking against alleged plans to reopen schools.

However, Prof. Adei believes it is irresponsible on the part of teachers not to discuss their salaries when they are sitting home and not working.

“[Being] a public worker does not mean that whether you work or not you are entitled to your pay. We must have the teachers when we reopen. But I expect some positive contributions,” he told Joy News.

“And you just go and tell the government ‘oh, don’t open schools, let us stay at home’ and then you say nothing about your salary or what we should do and the protocols towards reopening.

“Nothing, nothing about your salary, you’re going to stay at home. This is a sign of irresponsibility.”

The former GIMPA Rector had earlier called on government to consider reopening schools for only final year students in senior high schools and universities.

According to him, it is important to have a contingency plan to ensure that final year students complete their programme.

“I believe that the most important one is to deal with the final year, we can manage all the rest until the end of the year. But I think we should have a contingency for the final years immediately,” Prof. Adei said.

“A double or triple track system to make sure that the final year students complete their programme. The same can be done for final year students in university.”