GNAT wants Government to fast track payment of single spine arrears

Sunyani (B/A), Oct. 7, GNA – Mr. Samuel Doe Alobuia, Acting National President of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called on government to come out with a time-table to pay salary arrears accruing to teachers after their migration onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).

He made the call in a speech read for him at the Brong Ahafo regional celebration of the 17th edition of the Best Teachers Awards ceremony in Sunyani under the theme: “Teachers for Gender Equality”.

Mr Alobuia noted that any further delay in payment of the arrears was likely to disturb industrial peace as teachers were growing impatient.

He said, “The more government delays in payment, the bills become larger and become more difficult to pay”.

The Acting National President said discussions on ground rules for education on non-tertiary service classification developed by the Fair Wages and Salary Commission (FWSC) came to a halt at a point in time and the FWSC promised to work on the few challenges that emerged but nothing had been heard for the past two months.

The Commission, Mr Alobuia alleged, was not interested in pushing the issue further to enable public sector workers who have been migrated on to the SSSS to enjoy their allowances.

He therefore called on the FWSC to convene a meeting in the shortest possible time to enable negotiations on the allowances to begin.

He stated that the GNAT was again worried about the delay on the part of the Ministry of Education in identifying under-served areas for posted teachers to enjoy the 20 per cent allowance promised.

The delay was a de-motivating factor for teachers who would have gladly accepted postings to those communities, Mr Alobuia added.

He mentioned accommodation as a major problem why some teachers were reluctant to accept posting to especially deprived areas and stated that the GNAT had been advocating for the building of teachers’ quarters where ever school buildings were constructed.

Mr. Eric Opoku, Deputy Brong Ahafo Regional Minister noted that poor work and attitude of some teachers affected this year’s Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) results, reflecting a national performance of less than 50 per cent.

He announced many interventions were being rolled out by government to make the work of teachers more attractive and entreated them to work harder to reciprocate government’s huge investment in the education sector.

The Deputy Minister asked teachers to be role models to up and coming ones by eschewing lateness, absenteeism and alcoholism and appealed to parents to play their roles effectively to improve performance and quality in education.

Professor James Hawkins Ephraim, Vice Chancellor of Catholic University College of Ghana, Fiapre, entreated teachers to be aware of approaches to gender issues in teaching and learning to achieve gender equality in education.

The attainment of gender equality in education could be possible if teachers were adequately endowed, he said, and asked that conditions of service be enhanced to motivate teachers to help to achieve the education-for-all agenda.

Mr. Yaw Manu Yeboah, Regional Director of Education, urged teachers to take stock and study the real situation on the ground that was actually affecting the performance of students and come out with solutions and methods that could be used in teaching to improve quality.

He entreated teachers to put in their best to train the human resource base that the nation needed for development.

Four teachers were each awarded with a laptop computer, two pieces of (GNAT) cloth and a certificate for distinguishing themselves in the profession.

The beneficiaries were Anthony Vuudikubo of Kwame Danso JHS in Sene district, Patience Hawa Kura from Kintampo North, Margaret Winifred Konadu from Berekum and Samuel Koosono Ayi of Kwasi Buokrom Primary in Jaman district.