UpperWest Region House of Chiefs appeal to teachers to resume work

Wa, Oct. 27, GNA - The Upper West Regional House of Chiefs has appealed to members of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) currently on strike in the region, to resume work while negotiations with government for improved salaries and better conditions of service continued. Making the appeal in a statement signed by its President, Naa Sohamininye Danaa Gore, the Chiefs said they had taken cognizance of the fact that teachers needed to be adequately motivated to put in their best in training the country's future leaders. They observed that the region was one of the most deprived in the country and the continued boycott of classes by the teachers could only worsen an already bad situation and expressed the hope that as fathers of the region, NAGRAT and GNAT would pay heed to their humble appeal. Meanwhile, the Upper West Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service has decided to deploy all professional teachers serving in the regional and district offices of the service to teach final year students of Senior and Junior Secondary Schools in the region if the situation was not resolved by the beginning of November. Mr Cletus Paaga, Upper West Regional Director of Education in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on Thursday said modalities towards the implementation of this stop gap measure were being worked out. This decision, he said was taken at a meeting with all District Directors of Education in the region and they were compiling the list of officers to be deployed in their districts, indicating their subject areas and which category of schools they could teach. Mr Paaga said the lessons would be based on past examination questions and not the syllabus as the measure was geared towards preparing the students for next year's West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) and the Basic Education Certificate Examination in the absence of their teachers.