National Association of Graduate Teachers Without Understanding (NAGRATWU)

The teaching profession is one of the most honorable pursuits among men. Some of the best brains of our race can be counted amongst the ranks of celebrated teachers- our Lord Jesus Christ Himself being the chief. Remember, most ministers of religion are essentially teachers. And yet like all other endeavors of man, both good and bad men can be counted amongst the ranks of teachers.

Good teachers are the heroes and role models of most of us. They are the true and real heroes (whether sung or unsung) not because they have made fortunes from teaching, but because they have become the foundation on which great nations and societies have been built. They are full of the knowledge they teach, and have the technique and tact of effectively communication this to their pupils. They are usually gentlemen and ladies of the highest order. Patience and good humor are always present where a good teacher is at work. Great nations have several good teachers. And every nation that desires greatness must have good teachers in good numbers.

If there is anyone who should understand the socio-economic dynamics of their communities and societies, it must be the good teacher. Good teachers, by virtue of the fact that, they produce all the other skills and training in the nation, become maybe the most important building blocks in either holding a society together or destroying it. Good teachers are keenly aware of this, and comport themselves accordingly. They know they are the conscience of their nations- whether they teach kindergarten pupils or supervise doctoral dissertations.

Bad teachers may be the worst species of our race. They usually enter the teaching profession without a clue whatsoever about the pivotal role of this noble vocation. Usually, they choose it because they could do nothing else. They see it as a short-cut to other pursuits. Some of them go into it because of the power they may wield over young girls or young boys in their classes. Teachers who fall into this category are usually angry men and women, they are jealous of their contemporaries who enter other professions, they abuse their pupils, indulge in examination malpractices and do not care a hoot about the image of the profession.

Ghana is today faced with a perennial crisis of teacher strikes- most of the time for better conditions of service. The teachers have almost always done so collectively through their established organization, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT). GNAT has through the years negotiated all the conditions of service for all teachers within the pre-tertiary institutions. In fact one of the Conditions of Service is the Study-Leave facility which enables teachers to upgrade their training and education to whatever levels their abilities could carry them. Thus several Middle School Leaving Certificate holders (MSLC); G.C.E. ‘O’ Level holders; SSSCE holders etc., have progressed to become Graduate and post-Graduate certificate holders.

The new development with the teachers’ cry for more of the ‘National Cake’ is the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) phenomenon. This splinter group from GNAT claims that because they are Graduates, they must be considered as a different class of teachers, who must negotiate directly with their employers over their Conditions of Service. Please remember that most of them became ‘Graduates’ as a result of the negotiated Conditions of Service of GNAT. It is a fact that some of them joined the teaching profession without going through GNAT. I understand there are a total of nearly 25,000 Graduate teachers, 7,000 of them being members of NAGRAT.

Presently NAGRAT has been on strike for close to six weeks since our High Schools re-opened after a nearly six weeks break. Here are the reasons for their strike:

1. They want to be paid same salaries as nurses and doctors who have similar qualifications;

2. They must be granted a separate Bargaining Certificate from GNAT to enable them negotiate directly with their employers, the Ghana Education Service (GES);

3. Two children of each Graduate Teacher must be given fee-free education to the tertiary level;

4. The current Director General of GES must be removed, because he has exceeded the retiring age;

5. That unless these demands are met, they will not go to the classrooms to teach, and yet the government must pay them their full monthly salaries.

I may want at this juncture, to take each one of these ultimatums and deal with them as best as I think, and what I understand the government’s responses to them to be:

1. As a result of the Doctors/Nurses brain drain, those remaining in the system felt overburdened and over-worked. They embarked on a series of strikes. The then government entered into negotiations with them that resulted in the payment of Additional Duty-Hours Allowance (ADHA) I hear sometimes these allowances were about two-hundred percent of their regular salaries. This government after observing the manner this allowance was being computed felt that it could be better managed if it were consolidated with their basic salaries. It therefore set up a committee to investigate the possibility of this transition. Somewhere along the line of the committee’s work, it was felt that the ADHA should be suspended till the work was finished. The nurses and doctors got angry and embarked on a strike. In the final analysis, the work of consolidation was completed.

This is what the teachers are referring to. Government is telling them that what the nurses are now receiving has been almost the same since 1998. It had always been part of the budget since 1998. That negotiations are presently going on with all Civil and Public Service organizations for a comprehensive Salary Structure, that would be inserted in the next budget and effected in January 2007;

2. NAGRAT’s demand for a separate Bargaining Certificate to enable them negotiate directly with GES, their employers:

The Labor Act of Ghana, established the Ghana Labor Commission to preside over all labor issues in Ghana i.e. Mediating between employees and employers in case of disputes. According to our Labor Law, only one Labor Union could represent any group of employees in the Civil and Public Services who perform the same kind of work or service, at the negotiating table. Our Constitution grants Freedom of Association. Therefore whiles there could be several registered association within any organization, when it comes to negotiating Conditions of Service, these organizations ought to find a way of presenting a united voice before their employers and government. GNAT has been doing this for teachers all this while. GNAT has a national force of nearly 170,000 including 25,000 Graduate teachers (7,000 of whom belong to NAGRAT) For NAGRAT’s demand to be granted, the Labor Law must be either amended by an ACT of Parliament, or the Supreme the Court must rule in favor of NAGRAT’s perceived understanding of the relevant clause. The Labor Commission has sat on this impasse, and asked NAGRAT to resume work whiles negotiations continue. NAGRAT will have none of this. They will stay out of the classrooms till they are issued with the Bargaining Certificate;

3. That two children of each NAGRAT teacher must have fee-free education up to the tertiary level:

First and foremost, the government is presently running a Free Compulsory Universal Basic Education (FCUBE) that includes the children of NAGRAT. Why they think they must be singled out for this facility beats my understanding;

4. The current Director General of Education must be sacked immediately, because he is over and above the retiring age. The Conditions of Service within the Civil and Public Services make 60 years the compulsory retiring age. But it also gives room for retired people to be hired on Contract provided they are not above 65 years. He was hired on Contract. I understand he is 61. The government has even short-listed three candidates for his replacement next year. Our President is nearly 70 years old. J.H. Mensah is around 80. Some of these people look stronger and seem to be more mentally and intellectually alert than some of their younger colleagues, including maybe some members of NAGRAT- I stand to be corrected; 5. That unless some of these (ridiculous) demands are met, they will not go to the classroom and teach, and yet the government must pay them their full monthly salaries: Fellow countrymen, how do you classify these worthless threats? These are supposed to be ‘educated’ members of our society who have elected to be teachers (the most honorable of professions). This is why I am calling them NAGRATWU- they are teachers Without Understanding. I shall come back to this. Last week, five government ministers organized a Press Conference ostensibly to state the government’s position once again, and appeal to the striking teachers to go back to school. The ministers were for: Finance, Public Sector Reform, Employment, Education-Youth-And-Sports, and Information-And-National-Orientation. The President of the Republic joined them later on. They looked at the state of our National Revenue (Cake), in the light of the demands for increased salaries. Here are the figures they gave out:

Total National Revenue from all our Tax Collecting Agencies for 2006- ¢26,000,000,000,000 (trillions)

Total Salaries and Emoluments for 500,000 employees in Public/Civil Service (including teachers) 53% ¢14,000,000,000,000 (trillions)

GET Fund (Education); Road Fund; Health Insurance; etc. 30% ¢7,800,000,000,000 (trillions)

Remainder for other developments: 17%- ¢4,200,000,000,000 (trillions)

The projected National Revenue for 2007 is $31,000,000,000,000 (trillions). Interestingly the salary increases GNAT alone has proposed is in the neighborhood of the same amount $31,000,000,000,000 (trillions). So how come that those of us who are educated and can therefore understand what we have or do not have, make such demands for a ‘cake’ which we know we have not baked? We have NAGRAT teachers, who teach Economics, Statistics, Management, Law, Administration, Sociology, Accounting, Political Science, Business Law, Corporate Law, etc., etc., better than professors at Oxford and Harvard; yet, with our own hands, we are destroying our country. It is shocking to hear Alorvie, the head of NAGRAT talking. He has total disregard for the Laws of Ghana. He just spews worthless emotion. This is just pure lawlessness. “NAGRAT is on strike- everybody can go to hell- I do not care a hoot about the Law” This seems to be the knell of his public utterances. This is a very good example of a very bad teacher. He is a NAGRATWU- he is a teacher Without Understanding. Did I hear that this man wanted to be a Member of Parliament, and that he lost the primaries for a leading opposition party? Please correct me if this is not true.

Ghanaian teachers have a legitimate need. But I have a feeling, somebody or a group of people are using their legitimate needs for a very devious and mischievous purpose. The fact that you have a legitimate need does not mean you use illegitimate means to fulfill them. Teachers are too honorable for this. Has the government been deaf to the legitimate needs of Ghanaian workers- including teachers? No, not at all. At the time the government assumed power in 2001, according to the Finance Minister, the minimum wage was about 60 cents (then ¢4,000) – the dollar was ¢7,000. The minimum wage today is ¢16,000 about $1.70- the dollar is about ¢9,000.

The Finance Minister also said that, the salary of a Certificate ‘A’ Teacher in 2001 was just about ¢3,000,000 per anum. The inflation rate then was around 45%. Today, with an inflation rate of about 11%, the same teacher receives an Annual Income of about ¢17,000,000. This is over 500% increase. By all indications things are getting better. You cannot give all the credit to the current government. It is through the sacrifices of all Ghanaians (both local and abroad), including the previous NDC government. Whatever their wrongs were, they did some good too. After all, it is the same IMF and the World Bank that helped the NDC and is also helping the NPP. The criminalization of succeeding regimes only gives room for lawless persons to make lawless demands. Such people always count on the support of the opposition. Let us stop this. Alorvie and his bunch must be told the bitter truth. “We can only share what we create” We always have a penchant of referring to the ‘lavish’ lifestyles of ruling government politicians to strengthen our wild claims for wages that cannot be supported by the exchequer. Right from Nkrumah, every government has been branded ostentatious. One of the reasons Limann was overthrown was because he had imported Peugeot 504 cars for his ministers. The PNDC soon began bringing in Pajeros, Nisan Patrols etc. Kufour has bought cars for his ministers- yes; but he has bought cars for Doctors, Police, Civil/Public Servants, buses for schools, and the universities, hundreds of buses for the general public, free rides for some pupils to schools, buses for several second cycle schools, cars for GES officials, GNAT officials, District Assemblies, the Judiciary Service, Parliamentary Service, NADMO staff, the Military, Prison Service, loans for Parliamentarians to purchase cars, etc., etc. Kufour has invested $30 million dollars in the building of a Presidential edifice he may not have the privilege of enjoying. But he has also invested over several billions of cedis in building classrooms, roads, public places of conveniences, hospitals, etc. The Millennium Challenge Account alone is bringing in over $500 million for agriculture and rural development. Rome was not built in a day. With time, teachers, nurses, more civil servants, fishermen, farmers, indeed all of us can have access to our own cars, houses, etc. Gradually we shall get there. But if we refuse to be patient, and play into the hands of unreasonable men, motivated by jealousy and pettiness, then surely those days will not come, and the world will only be counting our skulls, ala Luanda!

NAGRAT and other teachers and Civil and Public Service workers who think they can take the country for a ride, must be told in no uncertain terms, that the worst they can do, is to bring the country on her knees- but that will include them. It is only fools who see what has happened to the other countries around us, and will continue doing acts that will doubtlessly lead to the same end. Mr. Alorvie- cut it off. Your blackmail will not work. Ghana cannot go back again to hyper-inflation and HIPC. We are climbing out of the pit. Let us help one another. With a better economy your salary may be upgraded to that of the nurses and doctors. But remember this, Mr. Alovie, the teachers are also better off than over sixty percent of the Ghanaian populace. And the government does not hate or disrespect teachers. No government does. Most members of Parliament and government ministers were teachers. How can they hate and disrespect teachers as you want the public to believe? You are rather creating disrespect for teachers through your unrefined and unguarded public utterances. The other day you were telling NAGRAT members on strike (who also shamelessly collect their monthly salaries) to charge parents heavily if they contract them to give private tuition to their children. You know no shame. This is not only disgraceful, but criminal. You are eroding the respect the public has had for teachers all throughout the ages. May be you do not know- but I want to tell you that both nurses and doctors have lost a lot of the honor and respect most people had for them. Show some understanding and respect for yourselves. Money is not everything. “A good name is better than riches”- remember this, Mr. Alorvie!

Long live the great teachers who have soldiered on and are still doing same. You are the real heroes and heroines of our dear nation. Do not allow any confused individuals to confuse you. You are too honorable for this.

God bless our homeland Ghana!

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