Teachers In Offices Asked To Return To Classroom

Tamale, (Northern Region) 9, September A five-day workshop on tenets of trade unionism for executive members of the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) opened at Tamale on Monday. In an address, the General Secretary of TEWU, Mr Dan Antwi, appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to ensure that teachers in the offices return to the classroom. He alleged that many teachers were leaving the classroom for the offices where they are under-utilized, thereby creating a vacuum in the schools. Mr Antwi told the participants from the Northern, Upper East and West regions that the collective bargaining agreement of the union would be reviewed next year though the 1995 one was yet to be implemented. He said management had directed regional directors of the GES to implement the 1998 agreement immediately. Mr Antwi said TEWU had printed copies of the union's collective bargaining agreement and constitution to be made available to all members. Alhaji Salifu Issifu, Northern regional secretary of the TUC, said the Labour Enterprise Trust (LET) would help create employment for retrenched workers and the unemployed. He asked the union executive to educate their rank and file on the need to buy shares in the new company. Alhaji Issifu appealed to the various union members to patronize the District Council of Labour which is an umbrella organization of all the unions to enable them to have one voice on national issues. Mr Emmanuel Fatomah, coordinator for Education International, an international teacher organization based in Lome, Togo, called on governments not to view education as a cost but as an investment for the nation's future development. He, therefore, called for the institutionalization of a regular training programme for teachers to enable them to be abreast with new technologies.