Teachers to boycott classroom over unpaid salaries

Newly trained teachers who were posted to various public schools between 2014/2015 are disquieted at the delay in the payment of their seven-month salary arrears, Today can report

Consequently, the distressed teachers who cannot hide their frustration any longer have indicated their intention to abandon the classrooms if the Ghana Education Service (GES) does not address the matter with a sense of urgency.

The intended strike, according to the angry teachers, would be aimed at resisting a unilateral decision by the GES to deduct “huge sums of money” from their monthly salary.

The teachers also found it difficult to understand why the District Education Officers of GES would decide to pay them GHC 2,800 instead of GHC 3,000 being three month salary of their 7-month salary arrears.

Some of the aggrieved teachers who agreed to speak to Today on condition of anonymity also complained about a ploy by officials of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) and GES to purposely frustrate them.

According to them, for almost seven months now, they have been receiving their pay-slips from CAGD, which situation indicates that their salaries are paid through their respective banks.

However, the teachers lamented that anytime they go to their banks to make withdrawals, they observe that their accounts have not been credited with their salaries.

"For the past seven months, we can state on authority that officials of the Controller and Accountant General's Department, Ghana Education Service and Ministry of Education have been deceiving us by sending us our pay-slips under the pretext that they have been paying our salaries through our bank accounts. But when we go to check at the banks, nothing is in our account to show that indeed our salaries are being paid through the banks.”

"...so what we want to know is where at all are our monthly salaries that officials of CAGD,GES and ministry of education claim they have been paying to ever since we were posted to our stations?, the angry teachers asked.

The teachers could also not fathom why CAGD delays in the payment of their monthly salary, since according to them, their names are on the payroll of the Controller and Accountant General’s Department.

They therefore expressed worry about the situation, lamenting that: “we find it very unfortunate why the Controller and Accountant General’s Department up till now cannot resolve our matter."

To this end, the teachers called on GES, ministry of education and CAGD to, as a matter of urgency, "sit up and resolve the matter else they would carry out their intended strike.”

It would be recalled that the Controller and Accountant General’s Department in October 2014 called on all those on government payroll system without bank account numbers to furnish the Department with their bank details or risk forfeiting their salaries.

However, CAGD in its defence attributed the delay in the payment to some errors with the account numbers of the teachers. . Speaking to Today, one of the aggrieved teachers noted that: “the District Education Directors of the GES assured us that by all means our seven month accumulated salaries will be paid by the end of May 2015 but we are in June and still counting.”

However, efforts by Today to seek clarification from officials of CAGD, ministry of education and GES proved futile.