Unemployed graduate teachers who have undergone three to four years of training through the distance education system are calling on government to employ them.

The teachers, ranging from year batches 2015 to 2019, said even though government continued to recruit teachers, who graduated from colleges of education, teachers who graduated through distance learning were denied similar recruitment opportunities.

Members of the Unemployed Distance Graduate Teachers Association (UDGTA), in the Upper East Region, at a press conference held in Bolgatanga, said past and present governments had been unfair in the recruitment of teachers into the Ghana Education Service.

“We humbly invite your intervention to direct the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to revise the recruitment method, where only teachers from the colleges of education who have attained tertiary status just like the universities we have attended, are recruited at the disadvantage of teachers from the universities who hold same or even higher qualification.”

Mr Asakibokire Daniel, a member of the group, who read the statement on behalf of his colleagues, said those who read Basic Education, Early Childhood Education, Psychology and Foundation of Education among other subjects at the various universities through distance education had participated in the licensing examination and were licensed to teach.

He said government had acted in circumvention of the Education act 2008 (Act 778), which spells out for equal employment opportunity for all qualified teachers.

“The above clause is very clear and does not give priority to any institution or a year group as a requirement for being recruited into the service, as the Ghana education service advertised last year and even last week.”

“We are crying that, as government is recruiting graduates of training colleges, a similar opportunity should be given to we those who went through the University training. If going through the University education is not legal, then government should find a way to abolish the distance education in the country,” Ms Samira Sadik stated.

Another unemployed graduate, Madam Adongo Victoria, said they had suffered some form of humiliation from the public due to government’s failure to employ them.

“The insults are too much for us, especially from those who went straight to the training colleges. They often tell us we didn’t pass our final examination that is why government is not recruiting us.”