Striking teachers have no case - Minister

(The Ghanaian Times) The Minister of Education (MOE) has described as unfortunate an unnecessary, the indefinite strike by the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) in the Central Region.

It also described as untrue, the accusation by NAGRAT that the Ghana Education Service (GES) had already paid the graduate teachers their new salaries by the end of last month. Mr Ahmed Ayuba, Special Assistant to the Minister, told the Ghanaian Times in an interview in Accra that the GES had already paid the graduate teachers who submitted their Integrated Personal Processing Data (IPPD) before 11 June.

Quoting from an agreement signed between GES and NAGRAT, he said that the two bodies agreed that all those who presented their forms before 11 June would be paid by the end of that month. He said those who submitted their forms after the stated date were to be paid by the end of July, according to the agreement. ?It is, therefore, not true that the GES or for that mater the government, has refused to pay them the new salary.

?Infact, GES has kept its side of the agreement,? he said. Mr Ayuba explained that the government could not have paid teachers who had yet submitted their input forms. He, therefore, appealed to those who had defaulted to submit their forms to facilitate payment of the new salaries.

Meanwhile, reports from Cape Coast indicate that the graduate teachers have said that they will return to work only if there is a clear indication of new salary adjustment on their pay vouchers this month. ?Such a decision could be possible when the government consults the national executive of NAGRAT.?

The Central Regional chairman of NAGRAT, Mr Kwame Alorvi, told the Times that all the promises given by the government to increase the salaries of the graduates since last March had not been fulfilled. That was after the Financial Controller of the Ghana Education Service, Mr Charles Otoo, met with executives of the Eastern, Western and Central Regional branches at Cape Coast to deliberate on the issue.

Mr Alorvi alleged that three was a deliberate attempt between the GES and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to frustrate the leadership of NAGRAT. He said that some members of NAGRAT were being persuaded by GNAT, in particular, in order to ensure that their salaries were converted.