The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has suspended its planned demonstration which was scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 15, 2014 in the Greater Accra Region.
The Greater Accra branch of NAGRAT threatened to embark on a demonstration before laying down their tools to protest against government’s refusal to address issues affecting members.
But Chairman of the Greater Accra Regional National Association of Graduate Teachers, Rene Senyo Kwamikorkor at a press briefing in Accra on Wednesday said the demonstration has been called off for security reasons.
‘’The police gave us the go ahead to demonstrate on Monday, they later told us to put on hold the demonstration because of certain security challenges ; there is also a ban on noise making in Accra as well and we want to respect the police and the laws,’’ he said.
He said they [NAGRAT] have their reservations about the reasons the police gave. although we have our own reservations about the reasons; we are respecting them because they [Police] are in charge of security in Greater Accra.’’
Mr. Senyo said the group will still strike from Friday, May 16 because government has failed to address the outstanding issues affecting their welfare.
Meanwhile the Coalition of Concerned Teachers said it has also suspended its demonstration because of the ban on drumming by the Ga Traditional Council.
The National President of the Coalition, Ernest Opoku said the coalition will demonstrate in Tamale next week instead of Accra.
NAGRAT has accused government of downplaying it’s outstanding issues of non- payment of the 2011-2012 increment credit arrears, three months arrears payment policy, poor handling of the second Tier pension issues of Ghana Education Service (GES) workers, staff rationalization and non-payment of transfer grants.
According to the group, majority of graduate teachers were facing difficulties in paying back loans they collected from banks following government’s delay in addressing their financial constraints.
By: Evans Effah/citifmonline.com/Ghana