Teachers in Nkwanta District threaten to strike

Nkwanta (V/R), Jan. 30, GNA - The 2005 year Group of Teachers posted to the Nkwanta District in the Volta Region have threatened to go on strike if they were not placed on their correct salary scales and arrears paid them.

The group, comprising 60 teachers, claimed the difference owed them was from September 2005 to date.

The threat was contained in a letter, with the names of teachers in the group attached, copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) at Nkwanta. "We the 2005 batch of trained teachers write to express our dissatisfaction about the inability of the education directorate to process our arrears and our placement on the right salary scale," the letter stated.

The letter said the contribution of 30,000 cedis each by the group members to the GES District Office to "accelerate the early processing of the arrears as well as the placement on the right salary scale resulted in nothing".

The group said its members were becoming frustrated with the delay. The letter also claimed the group had sought audience with Mr Joseph Denteh, District Chief Executive (DCE) on the issue after which he offered a vehicle to send Integrated Personnel Processing Data (IPPD) on the members to Accra for processing but the IPPD Officer refused to go.

The group claimed the GES office in Nkwanta always blamed the Controller and Accountant General's Department (C&AGD) for the delays. The teachers, who claimed their colleagues in other districts had been properly placed, expressed gratitude to the Nkwanta District Assembly for giving them a loan of 200,000 cedis each.

Rev. Ernest Gaewu, District Director of Education, when contacted, said the group was being impatient and that all documents were in Accra for processing and that the delays might be due to systems changes at the C&AGD.