'Tell Ghanaians real reason behind your strike' – Owusu Bempah dares to blow cover of leaders

A Deputy Communications Director of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), Ernest Owusu Bempah, has described the strike action by the three Teacher Unions as “illegal and unjustifiable”.

According to him, a 'gang of seven’ within the leadership of the Teacher Unions is orchestrating the action to suit their own parochial interest and misleading innocent Teachers who don’t even know why they are on strike.

He has therefore cautioned the ‘Gang of seven’ leading the Teacher Unions strike to be very careful.

“The gang of seven who are leading the Teacher Unions who think their selfish interest will override the National interest should be very careful…I know more about what they are doing and it is about time that we expose them if they don’t come clean,” he told Peacefmonline.com in an interview.

“What are they so scared of or are they hiding that they don’t want Dr. Eric Nkansah to even assume his position as the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service? Is there anything they are hiding that we don’t know, that they are trying to hide behind that reason to justify their misconduct and malfeasance, to lead the entire nation and innocent Teachers astray? What they are doing is even a National Security threat and infringing on the right of teachers,” Mr. Owusu Bempah angrily said.

“Why are they doing this to the entire nation?. . Is it because Akufo-Addo is a listening President?”

“They should tell the nation why they are misleading the entire Teachers to go on strike . . . because I know why they are doing what they are doing,” he said.

He said Dr. Eric Nkansah has over 15 years of experience in academia and education policy administration, the exact function of the Director General, and has also served on many governing councils in the Education Service notably at Koforidua Technical University, St. Louis College of Education, etc.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-G), on November 4, 2022, declared a nationwide strike over the failure of the government to meet the deadline to terminate the appointment of the new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr. Eric Nkansah.

They say they will call off their strike action when the government addresses their grievances.

In response to them, the National Labour Commission (NLC) has asked them to rescind the strike and resume work while they continue their engagement with the government.

Mode of Appointment of GES Director General

The mode of appointment of the Director-General Of Ghana Education Service remains the prerogative of the President as stated clearly in Article 195 of the 1992 constitution and one's Educational qualification or rank in the Ghana Education Service wasn't and isn't a criterion.

The Pre-Tertiary Education Act, 2020 Act 1049, in no ambiguous term spells out clearly the Membership of the Ghana Education Service of which "any other person employed for the Education Service is included.

The Ghana Education Service consists of Teaching and non-teaching staff some of which occupy the position of financial controller, Chief Internal Auditor, etc in the Ghana Education Service.