NAGRAT members urged not to boycott invigilation

Accra, April 13, GNA - The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT)- Ghana, Mr. Kwami Alorvi on Friday appealed to members of the Association not to carry out their threat to boycott the invigilation of the West African Secondary School Certificate Examinations (WASSCE) which begin in a few weeks.

He said the NAGRAT leadership was scheduled to meet the authorities of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to resolve the problems that had characterized the supervision of examinations in previous years. Speaking at a press conference in Accra to express the concern of the Association about their service conditions and other related issues, Mr Alorvi noted; "We passionately call on all members to stay the execution of the planned boycott till we meet the GES management on the matter."

Touching on salaries, he said the new salary structure promised workers to take effect in January 2007 did not materialize, as teachers saw no increase.

"The three million and seventeen million cedis publicized represented annual gross salary and not monthly gross salaries," he said.

Mr Alorvi noted that unfortunately the new salary structure and the Fair Wages Commission promised by government were yet to pass through the necessary Parliamentary process.

He said teachers had not been placed on their new levels since 2005, while almost all those who were newly engaged by the GES in 2005 and 2006 were yet to receive any salary.

The NAGRAT President said there were also serious anomalies in the placing of teachers on their appropriate levels.

"Some Assistant Directors who were supposed to have been placed on the newly created Deputy Director grade (Level 17) have been abandoned on Level 16 Assistant Director 1, while others who were to be placed on step 5 of level 16 were placed on either step 2 or 3," he added. On frozen salaries, Mr Alorvi stated that while the frozen salaries of some teachers had been paid others still remained unattended to and called on the GES to ensure that the arrears were cleared to stop industrial action.

He noted that there was no justification to continue to freeze salaries since all the lost hours incurred during the strike period had been restored.

"Schools made arrangements to cover the lost hours by extension of class hours into the late afternoon and into holidays." Mr Alorvi said although the salaries frozen in October 2006 were defrozen some teachers in Opoku Ware Secodary School and Adu Gyamfi Secondary Schools had not been paid. Some teachers in Nalerigu Secondary School had only the March 2007 salaries restored leaving November 2006 to February 2007 still outstanding.

"It may interest you to know that since February 2007 some teachers, including the Deputy General Secretary and the President of NAGRAT have not been paid." He expressed displeasure at the Fast Track Court's declaration that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case on the Bargaining Certificate of NAGRAT, indicating that the action was contrary to the 1992 constitution.

Mr Alorvi expressed misgivings about the successful implementation of the new educational reform launched on Wednesday by President John Agyekum Kufuor, saying the neglect of the teacher factor coupled with inadequate infrastructure and improper orientation of teachers would clearly create problems for the system. "For me there is no difference between the old and the new systems. The Junior and Senior High do not add anything to the content and the quality of the system." 13 April 07