We won’t call off strike – NAGRAT to government

President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers [NAGRAT], Angel Carbonu, has said NAGRAT will not call off its strike despite government’s assurances that teachers owed salary arrears will be paid by Friday, April 6.

The Finance Ministry had indicated that it had planned to pay the teachers who were owed the arrears by April 6, 2018.

This only comes after the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Wednesday declared an indefinite strike over outstanding salary arrears due its members.

In a letter dated 29th March 2018, but released Wednesday April 4, 2018, amidst the pressure by aggrieved teachers indicated that it has released over 40 million cedis to settle arrears owed “2,566 Ghana Education Service employees.”

But Mr Carbonu insisted, the scheduled payment to the 2500 teachers barely covers 5% of the total number of unpaid teachers and hence calling off the strike will be a wrong move on the basis of the said promise.

“2,500 covers just less than 5 percent of the total number of people who have been affected. What has the audit service done all these years with the validation exercise that is going on,” he questioned in an interview with Accra-based Citi FM.

Meanwhile he said his outfit will continue to monitor that payment is actually made to the teachers and plans are put in place to settle the arrears of the remaining teachers before their strike can be called off.