According to the Association, the move is to aid the processes leading up to the certification of qualified teachers in Ghana.

This was made known by the newly-elected President of GNAT, Philippa Larsen, at Cape Coast on Saturday.

She garnered 568 votes to beat the two other contestants, at the 2018 5th Quadrennial and 52nd National Delegates Conference, to become the substantive President of GNAT.

She said, “I want the maximum support and respect for the Ghanaian teacher, so some people who don’t qualify as teachers but have found their way into the profession, we will weed them out”.

Defending her assertion, Philippa Larsen continued that, “We will get the right people who are teachers in order to enhance the proper image of the teaching profession, and this will make our certification as professionals smooth”.

Mrs Larsen, who prior to her election had been the acting President of GNAT, also appealed to teachers who have left GNAT to return to the Association.

She intimated that other GNAT members who left the Association some few years ago had returned prior to the conference.

“I am begging those who are still out to come back, and I assure them they will enjoy belonging to GNAT,” she added.

The delegates also elected Afelibiek Ababu as the Vice President, while Hannah Odjenma Botchway was elected National Treasurer.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers is the largest teacher union in the country with a membership of several thousand.

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By: Joseph Ackon-Mensah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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Although a specific date for the strike has not been given, the second term begins next week. The intended strike is in connection with the non-payment of arrears amounting to over GHc 50 million.

[contextly_sidebar id=”23t82629rc5rS7Mjnh2Wguuo4eDdE3kR”]According to them, the said arrears were captured to be paid in the March 2017 budget but were not paid.

The unions, comprising the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), have been negotiating with the government for the past 11 months.

The unions say the unpaid allowances have accrued from 2013 to date.

Speaking to Citi News on behalf of the three teacher unions, the incoming President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, noted that notice of the intended strike stemmed from their frustrations in their dealings with government.

He said the unions did not see any possibility of progress with the current negotiations.

“You go and have meetings and it is as if there is some break in synergy or understanding between the controller and accountant general, the audit service, all contributing to delays in the payment of the money.”

“We served notice to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission indicating that we have come to the end of the road. We have made these demands for a while, but we are not getting positive results so come this term, we will be taking industrial action to push further our demands,” Mr. Carbonu said.

Serious agitation over the arrears begun in 2016, when NAGRAT threatened a similar action over the non-payment of salary arrears to 2013 and 2014 batches of newly recruited teachers, teachers on promotion, and others who were reinstated or re-engaged, and also outstanding transfer grants and allowances to deserving teachers.

Agitations from CETAG

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) also laid down their tools for three weeks over the failure of the government to pay salary arrears owed them since October 2016.

The strike was called off after the three national officers of CETAG signed an agreement with three Cabinet Ministers; the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, the Education Minister and a deputy Finance Minister, signed for the government.

The details of the agreement indicated that government would pay the arrears in the first quarter of 2018.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Association said it continues to receive complaints from teachers that they were being compelled to fill a “weaver of T and T” form to go on transfer, while they had not made any request to be transferred.

The situation GNAT viewed as a blatant violation of the collective agreement and the regulations governing transfers, adding that “transfers must be done with all humility and fairness”.

[contextly_sidebar id=”NMrMMZhnKQVT3ynjrnoLDv4ZuGuvbrxG”]Consequently, GNAT has sounded a word of caution to the GES to desist from such practices because it could amount to huge judgment debt.

Mr William Abedi Boadu, Central Regional Secretary of GNAT, who expressed these sentiments in an interview with the Ghana News Agency, advised that in the expected transfers, GES should ensure that funds are secured to pay the legitimate entitlements of the affected teachers to bring about a smooth exercise.

He said while the employer had the right to deploy employees to where their services were most needed, employees’ right to claim their legitimate entitlements should not be stifled.

“Ambiguous statements like ‘T and T’ to be borne by the teacher and re-imbursed as and when funds are available as stated in most of the transfer letters are not acceptable. The rights thing must be done. Directors must respect the regulations governing transfers,” he said.

Mr. Boadu said GNAT had received summon letters from lawyers of affected teachers, stating that the transfers of their clients were not done in good faith, describing the trend as “worrying”.

He said the concerns raised by GNAT followed previous failure by the GES to pay teachers legitimate entitlements.

He advised teachers to take advantage of the system opportunities to empower themselves to be able to fight for their rights.

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Source: GNA

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In a letter dated October 17, 2017, addressed to the Finance Minister, the teachers said: “We refer to our letter dated 21st June 2017, and subsequent meetings that followed on the subject matter above, and regret that the concerns raised have been left unaddressed to date.”

[contextly_sidebar id=”UX2xevDciOH8RENWJtFMmCzDNondTIMn”]According to them, in the said meeting, the stakeholders agreed in principle to commence the validation exercise of teachers for payment of salary arrears on September 11, 2017, for which notices were sent to members across the country.

They said in addition to the resolution of the meeting, it was agreed that, 65, 013 forms were to be validated in 88 days.

However, they said they are amazed that “as we write and one month down the line, no action has been taken to commence the exercise and we see this as a deliberate ploy and betrayal of good faith in dealing with the matter.”

For them, “the circumstances in which we find ourselves, it would be extremely difficult for the leadership to restrain our members from expressing their anger in forms that may affect the sanctity of the school environment.”

They are therefore calling on the government to address their concerns within the stipulated period, or they will be forced to use other channels to seek redress.

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By: citifmonline.com/Ghana

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As the Free SHS policy took a closer step to fruition with the unveiling of its logo on Thursday, Mr. Acheampong said his union was essentially sidestepped in the implementation process.

The GNAT General Secretary described this as “very wrong,” in an interview on Eyewitness News, and bemoaned the fact that his union, one of the three teacher unions in Ghana, was not invited.

“Now when this national committee was established, we expected them to have written to us, as we hold the collective bargaining certificate, that look; teacher unions, we are setting up a national implementation committee and therefore we want you to send us a representative.”

“Before we were aware, the implementation committee had been done already. We were only asked to come and serve on one of the subcommittees and definitely we sent people to go, but we thought that it was unrealistic.”

“The best thing to have been done was that you write to us as teacher unions because at least, the law says that there must be one union which holds the collective bargaining certificate,” Mr. Acheampong asserted.

He stressed that his union holds the largest teacher population in basic and second cycle schools, “therefore if you want to take any decision that affects education in Ghana, you cannot sidestep us.”

The only teacher union that had a representative on the committee was the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), but Mr. Acheampong said he never met on the outcome from committee meetings with the rep from NAGRAT.

The Free SHS programme is scheduled to start with the 2017/18 academic year in September.

The policy will ensure that government absorbs the full cost of public secondary education, with beneficiaries not having to pay admission fees, examination fees, and utility fees, among others, according to the government.

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By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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“We are not against exams, but we want the right thing to be done, the modalities for the licensing should be spelt out and that the institution of state must work according to plan,” he added.

[contextly_sidebar id=”wSQnzhwydLhI7uDwAkBQCFuc0U4gtYm3″]He made the remarks in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra at the sidelines of the fifth Quadrennial Regional Delegates Conference of the Greater Accra Ghana National Association of Teachers.

The conference was on the theme, “Transforming Societies through Education under the Agenda 2030: 60 Years of Ghana’s Education System; Educating for Certification or Educating for Self-Sustaining Life Transformation”.

It could be recalled that the Ghana Education Service (GES) said all trained teachers nationwide were expected to start writing professional licensing examinations to be conducted by the Service.

The initiative according to the GES was part of the education sector’s professional development and that it applies to both trainee teachers graduating from public and private teacher training colleges.

Mr Acheampong expressed the believed that GES ‘was jumping the gun’ and that they were not against the move but the modalities for the licensing was necessary in that perspective.

“For instance i can establish a driving school and certify you to drive but until DVLA gives you the licence you cannot drive on the road. This is because Driver ad Vehicle Licensing Authority (DVLA) has rules and modalities to follow to get a licence; so they should bring the modalities not exams”.

He stated that the National Teaching Council was mandated by law to prescribe modalities for teachers licensing, and that the Council was yet to meet and could not understand why the interest in the issue.

Mr Acheampong expressed his disagreement with the idea for schools to close at 4pm instead of 2pm, saying there was no scientific basis for the extension, because the decision was taken to favour the interest of few instead of the country as a whole.

“You are extending the duration because in Accra people cannot go and pick their children at that time forgetting that in some communities some children walked for about seven kilometres to school and walked back to farms, saying such decision must reflect the interest of all and sundry not few”.

He called for a national dialogue to discuss issues pertaining to the educational sector including the reduction of subjects in schools.

The General Secretary expressed his disagrees with the assertion that students be made to carry phones to schools since it distracted lessons and affected concentration on the part of the students.

He urged government to resource the ICT centres in the schools to make teaching possible since there were lots of students who were disadvantage in terms of access to technology.

“For now, we think there should be a portal link with educational activities, since some students would abuse the opportunity negatively by watching pornography materials and unnecessary activities instead of learning”.

On the contrary, Mr Anis Haffer, a Lecturer at the Accra College of Medical, expressed the belief that students should be given the nod to use phones in schools but should be well-structured to prevent its abuse since we were in the world of technology.

Mr Haffer, also a Consultant in Education urged teachers to be innovative in their style of teaching and never underrate the students because some could be used to teach others in the classroom.

He said it was time to move away from ‘chew and pour’ and focus more on solving problems in a realistic way, urging teachers to develop psyche of the children from the beginning to unearth their potential.

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Source: GNA

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The five-day residential programme organised under the GNATech-ICT Project and wholly-sponsored by the Association, is an annual affair on regional basis and the seventh in the series since 2011.

The Upper West, Upper East and Volta Regions are yet to be covered and it aims at developing and sharpening the ICT skills of teachers from basic schools in deprived communities to aid effective teaching and learning of the ICT.

Madam Philippa Larsen, the President of GNAT said the workshop would generate interest in the teaching and learning of ICT in both the teachers and the pupils.

She explained that the project would also facilitate the efforts of the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education in providing ICT facilities for the basic schools in the country.

Mad. Larsen announced as part of the GNATech Project, that, ICT resource centres would be established in all the regions to equip teachers, pupils and students with ICT skills and urged participants to remain focused for a successful training.

Professor Kwadwo Appiah-Adinkrah, the Vice-Chancellor of the Sunyani Technical University stated that it would be a political-economic failure of the country, if the leadership continued to depend on natural resources to develop it.

“The better way to develop this nation is to depend on its human resources”, he emphasised and cited that the United States of America, Japan, Germany, Malaysia and other developed nations globally had advanced holistically in their development because they consciously and critically developed their human resource bases.

Prof. Ing. Appiah-Adinkrah reiterated that technical-vocational education in the country had a lot of challenges but with enormous potential to accelerate the socio-economic development of the country.

He said those challenges needed to be addressed urgently and appealed to government and all stakeholders to prioritise that in the implementation of various educational policies in basic, secondary and tertiary levels.

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Source: GNA

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The elected executives are: Mr Charles Atakibire Ateem, Bolgatanga Senior High School, Chairman; Mr Emmanuel Gambil Ditamina, Kongo Junior High School, Vice Chairman; Madam Theodora Ako, Adabase Junior High School, Treasurer; and Madam Rose Atubila, Kumbosigo Primary, as the Trustee.

The rest are Bertrand Asamannaba, Second Cycle representative, Madam Faustina Bugre, from the Presbyterian Primary School representing basic schools, Sebastian Awobgo, Presbyterian Junior High School as the Youth Coordinator.

The rest are Edward Ayaane, Bolgatanga Technical Institute, as the Technical Schools’ representative; Abdul-Korah Razak,  Office and Administrative representative; while Madam Beatrice Teni Atule, Bolgatanga Municipal Education Office as the GNAT Ladies Coordinator.

The Chair, Mr Ateem, expressed his gratitude to the delegates for giving him the chance to lead the Association and urged them to put their differences aside and forge ahead to bring the needed development to the Association.

The Chairman called for unity adding that “it is time to arise and take the mantle of the union on our hands and determine the direction of flow.”

Mr Ateem said after acquiring a piece of land three years ago for the construction of a secretariat, no structure has been erected and this has attracted encroachers.

“The Trustee and the committee in-charge will be empowered to protect the land by demarcating the end points,” he said.

He urged teachers in the municipality to work hard and be punctual at school.

The Vice Chairman, Mr Emmanuel Gambil Ditamina, called for support from members to enable the newly elected executives to advocate for better conditions of service.

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Source: GNA

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According to him, the teachers are adopting new strategies to ensure their students improve on their academic performance.

Mr Acheku made this known at the 5th quadrennial teachers conference at Prampram in the Ningo-Prampram District over the weekend.

The conference was under the theme: “Transforming society through education; the 2030 agenda.”

He noted that, although teachers in the Dangme West District were being treated unfairly, they are unable to make demands of government due to the low standards of academic performance of pupils in the area.

“The Dangme West District makes up the two administrative districts  of Shai Osudoku and Ningo Prampram. We have seen that it is a challenge for us as a union to be asking for more from our employers because the performance in the BECE is nothing you can be proud of. So this term, I want to take it as a project to complement the effort of the district directorate of education to ensure that the teachers are mindful and strictly adhering to the tenets of our profession so that we can change the status quo of poor performance in the area.”

He added that, successive governments have short-changed teachers, and it is about time their working conditions are reconsidered, to serve as motivation to their pupils.

“Currently, we don’t motivate the pupils we teach because our living condition as teachers is nothing to write home about. The pupils don’t regard the teacher teaching them because they are not inspired by our living conditions as teachers. So you teach and they don’t regard you, hence the fallen standards, that is why we are impressing upon government to do something about the living condition of teachers.”

The Deputy General Secretary of GNAT  in-charge of education and professional development, Gifty Apanbil, noted that the Association will continue to fight for better conditions of service for teachers to ensure that their welfare is prioritized.

“Whilst we continue to fight for better conditions of service for our teachers, we appeal to them to do their work diligently and the association will ensure that what is due them is given,” she said.

Madam Apanbil further called on all stakeholders to help ensure quality education for all pupils.

Executives of the new administration who are serving their second term in office, were all sworn into office to serve an additional four-year mandate as GNAT district executives.

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By: Elvis Washington/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The Deputy General Secretary of GNAT in charge of education and Professional Development, Madam Gifty Apanbil, made this known on the sidelines of the 5th quadrennial teachers’ conference at Prampram in the Ningo Prampram District.

According to her, in areas where galamsey is seriously taking place, pupils leave the classrooms in search of quick money at galamsey sites, which is affecting the standards of education in such areas.

She said “we have realized that as teachers, it is having a negative impact on our work, because young ones are being lured into the area, women are being lured into the area, and our water bodies are being polluted and we have realized that in areas where galamsey is being practiced, we have our children playing truant as a lot of them leave the classrooms in search of quick money at galamsey sites.”

She said enrollment is quite low in galamsey prone areas, because most of the pupils in such areas choose quick money over education.

“You see, children in these areas no longer have appetite for schooling because of quick money and those who are left in the classroom miss quality teaching and learning hours; and since their water bodies have been polluted, they would have to walk long distances in search of potable water before coming to school, and so they lose a lot of quality teaching hours. The time that should be used to learn as well would have to be spent in search of water.”

Madam Apanbil noted that, galamsey if not checked, will affect the society seriously, since mothers who are supposed to take care of their children have also been lured into the business of galamsey.

“Standards in our education are falling because mothers who are supposed to take care of our children have also been lured into this galamsey menace and so our children are left on their own with little or no supervision. As a result, children whose parents are involved in this galamsey business do not have the commitment of their parents in their welfare, and are left on their own without parental supervision”

“As educators, we are highly worried about the menace of galamsey so we are calling on government to look at the issues seriously, and put a stop to it and find a lasting solution to the problem, so that as teachers, we can also function very well in our classrooms. Stop galamsey now!” she stated

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By: Elvis Washington/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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