The Association added that it will take a strong decision in protest if the government fails to meet the deadline.

[contextly_sidebar id=”7ubbc2Q75Gc1zmzs4KiyqtOKNnYRyYTI”]NAGRAT in a communiqué copied to citifmonline.com expressed disappointment that the government had not fulfilled its promise to pay the areas which has been outstanding for about 4 years.

“At the end of March, when the issues are not addressed positively, we as a union will advise ourselves. The industrial environment wouldn’t be peaceful,” the President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu told Citi News.

At an earlier press conference on the matter, Angel Carbonu said, “We are owed vehicle maintenance allowances, we are also owed transfer grants, and then we are also owed transport and travel allowances. All these amount to over 50 million cedis. And there are also salary arrears of those who have been recruited into the Ghana Education Service, and they have taught for months and have not been paid for those months that they have taught. They also owe us allowances and arrears that ought to be paid, and all these we are not getting any clear indication as to government’s determination to pay these monies. So once we have a situation like this, we are affected by government’s ineptitude to address the issues.”

In the three-point communiqué it issued, the teacher union also kicked against a directive by Ghana Education Service extending instructional hours in the classroom.

Mr. Carbonu charged members of the Association to boycott the directive if they deem it unhelpful.

NAGRAT has drawn the attention of successive governments to arrears  owed its members, estimated to be about GH¢ 50 million in total.

In January 2018, it put on hold a planned industrial action when the incumbent government paid part of the arrears.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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According to the Association, it will take a concrete decision after a meeting with its Council members following government’s announcement that it had partially cleared the debt.

[contextly_sidebar id=”mmANeFWrvtFnPzB2wJgWsk4uMEEup1Uq”]NAGRAT’s intended strike was to protest its unpaid allowances that had accumulated from 2013.

NAGRAT President, Angel Carbonu, at a press conference last week said “we are owed vehicle maintenance allowance, we are also owed transfer grants, and then we are also owed transport and travel allowances. All these amounts to over 50 million cedis, and there is also salary arrears of those who have been recruited into the Ghana Education Service, and they have taught for months and have not been paid for those months that they have taught. They also owe us allowances and arrears that ought to be paid, and all these we are not getting any clear indication as to government’s determination to pay these monies, so once we have a situation like this, we are affected by government’s ineptitude to address the issues.”

The government through the Ministry of Finance is on record to have released some 14 million cedis to the Education Ministry to defray some of the arrears owed.

This was announced by Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia.

But speaking to Citi News, Mr. Carbonu said NAGRAT will hold some meetings to find the way forward.

“When we are going to embark on any such action, we would have to sit with the Council and the Council takes a definite decision. The announcement that government had paid 14 million came on Friday. We are going to carry that announcement to the table and a final decision will be arrived at,” he said.

He noted that the Council will need clarity from the government on which category of teachers the released funds will cater for, and when the remaining amount will be paid to determine its next line of action.

“If all these things are done and we are sure that within the shortest possible time, the monies will be paid to members, it will influence our decision,” he added.

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By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The suggestion is aimed at getting educational policymakers and implementers to have greater control in regulating how pupils spend their time after school in order to ensure that they study a lot more and improve their academic performances.

[contextly_sidebar id=”69WlVnxaLZAjFsAwdfY6OHfHsONXik6I”]The suggestion was made by the Central Region’s immediate past president of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Bright Bedzrah, at a forum held by the Regional Minister at Cape Coast on Monday.

In his interview with journalists at the forum, Mr Bedzrah lamented: “These are the pupils supposed to sit down at night and learn, but you see them moving about town, sometimes twelve midnight, the whole night. There should be an LI preventing these children from roaming about in town at special times; it is possible.”

He argued that the issue has been one of the ‘ignored realities’ which factor into the low academic performance at the basic school level in the country.

Though the institution of regulations to monitor the movement of basic school children has been initiated by some districts and traditional authorities in some parts of the country, the former NAGRAT Regional President posits a nationalistic approach to the issue in terms of an LI is the way to go.

He also warned against any intention on the part of the government to introduce performance contracts for heads of schools and teachers without adequate input from teacher unions in the country.

“You are talking about contracts – it means you are talking about the rights of somebody, a decision between two or three people; we want this thing to be done properly, so open it for broader consultation,” Mr Bedzrah said.

He also called for the extension of the teacher motivation allowance at the Senior High School level to basic school teachers, arguing that “once there is something called teacher motivation, it must start from the basic level so that the basic teacher who equally has the same qualification and/or above those teaching at the secondary school should be given the same teacher motivation.”

The ex-NAGRAT boss stated that a critical look at issues concerning the capitation grant and resource provision at the basic school was needed as an indication of the government’s commitment to sanitizing the public basic school level.

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

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The Executives include Eric Angel Carbonu as President, Jacob Anaba as Vice President and Samuel Frank Dadzie as General Secretary.

The rest are Mr Michael Ayuraboya as Deputy General Secretary, Mr Isaac Lamptey as Finance Officer,  Dr. Harriet k Annan as Publicity & Organizing Secretary and Madam Rebecca A Ocran as Ladies Of Excellence Coordinator.

They took the official Oath which was administered by a High Court Judge.

The Minister of Education, Matthew Opoku Prempeh who was the guest of honour charged incoming executives to continue to engage government through dialoging to address pertinent issues. He also assures the association that government will continue to support their course.

The Immediate past President of the Association, Christain Addae Poku thank members of the Association for their immense support.

The newly sworn in NAGRAT president, Eric Angel Carbonu, used the opportunity to call on the government to withdraw the Education Decentralisation Bill.

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By: Kojo Agyeman/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Photo Credit: Laila Abubakari

The post Angel Carbonu takes over as NAGRAT president appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

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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NAGRAT’s response follows a report suggesting that 36% of public basic schools are without toilets.

About 7,332 out of the 20,738 public basic schools in the country, do not have toilet facilities, while 6,922 do not have urinal facilities, according to a report released by the Education Management Information System (EMIS) for 2016-2017.

Among the many stakeholders, NAGRAT has been chastised for failing to raise concerns about the current situation.

Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show however, the incoming President of the Association of NAGRAT, Mr. Angel Carbonu explained that, though NAGRAT is highly interested in the health of students, it is the responsibility of the District Assemblies to ensure that various communities where these schools are located have toilet facilities.

“If we want to add infrastructural facility inadequacy to our challenges then everyday we will be on strike. That is not to say what you are saying is wrong, you are perfectly right, but as teachers we have to be interested in the environment that we teach and the health of the students, but this is under the direct purview of the District Assembly.”

He was however quick to add that NAGRAT will take up the responsibility of pressurizing various authorities to address the problem.

“As an association, we can do advocacy, but the society should be ready when we start raising our voices. We do not want people to say we overstretching our mandate.”

No standards

Mr. Carbonu further indicated that, the situation is prevalent in Ghana because there are no standards for the establishment of schools.

“In Ghana, we have not established standards where we say this can qualify to be a school. Even in some of the schools that we have toilets, go and find out what kind of toilets are there, and whether that toilet is not compromising the health of the students. I think the situation is even worse than the percentage that is being quoted, and that is an area that we have reneged and closed our eyes to. “

“Parents, landlords have built houses even without places of convenient…Now this has been transferred to the type of schools we have in the community.”

Out of the 3,754 public basic schools in the Ashanti Region, 1,427 are without toilet facilities, and in the Western Region 1,132 out of the 2,408 schools are without toilets.

In the Upper West Region, out of the 1,165 schools, 350 are without toilets.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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Over the past 11 months, the various teacher unions have been negotiating with the government on the need to settle all its indebtedness to teachers, but the government has failed to honour its promise, after including it in the 2017 budget.

[contextly_sidebar id=”LWDTpkH24qW1Ixhw2CBLUj0ncHSm0hTQ”]According to NAGRAT, the unpaid allowances have accrued from 2013 to date.

Addressing the media at a press briefing today [Friday],  incoming President of  NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu, called on government to address their concerns without further delays.

“We are owed vehicle maintenance allowance, we are also owed transfer grants, and then we are also owed transport and travel allowances. All these amounts to over 50 million cedis, and there is also salary arrears of those who have been recruited into the Ghana Education Service, and they have taught for months and have not been paid for those months that they have taught. They also owe us allowances and arrears that ought to be paid, and all these we are not getting any clear indication as to government’s determination to pay these monies, so once we have a situation like this, we are affected by government’s ineptitude to address the issues.”

NAGRAT 2016 threat

In 2016, the Association 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.

CETAG strike

NAGRAT’s threat follows a three month strike by the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), over the failure of government to pay salary arrears owed them since October 2016.

The strike was later called off following assurances from the government that the arrears would be paid to them by April 2018.

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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

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Speaking on Citi FM’s news analysis programme, The Big Issue on Saturday, Mr. Carbonu said government must instead find sustainable ways of funding the free SHS programme.

“You cannot be certain the amount of contributions that will come, and without certainty you cannot plan,” he explained.

[contextly_sidebar id=”GEm9bPCpel61arcPgDFrjat8V3Npiw6A”]The Finance Minister, Ken Ofori-Atta, while presenting the 2018 budget statement to Parliament on Wednesday, said government is in the process of setting up a fund to receive voluntary contributions from individuals to support the implementation of its flagship Free Senior High School programme, and the education sector as a whole.

The move has been criticized mostly by members of the minority who say it has exposed government’s inability to secure the needed funding to sustain the programme.

Mr. Carbonu also reiterated earlier claims by some civil society organisations that the over GHc1 billion budgetary allocation for the free SHS programme in 2018 is “woefully inadequate.”

“Let me say that, information getting to me indicates that, we do not even have the full complement of even the 20 percent that has to go to the schools. The amount of money quoted as the budget for free SHS, when you put all the items on the table, it does not cater for all the needs… There is the need for us to sit down as a people, and stop this I want to look good mantra, and let us tackle the hard core issues – to provide for ourselves resources to be able to run our country. What we are doing is the blanket doling out of people to go to senior high school, and it will not be sustainable in the future,” he cautioned.

The incoming NAGRAT President also called on government to channel its attention to basic schools in the country, which are severely challenged in many areas.

You can’t rely on voluntary contributions for Free SHS- Ablakwa

National Democratic Congress (NDC) Member of Parliament for the North Tongu Constituency, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has said the government cannot afford to rely on voluntary contributions to fund education, particularly free SHS, as projections for those funds may not materialize.

According to Ablakwa, putting a lot of expectations on money which would be accrued from the fund could backfire as it may not appeal to Ghanaians enough to voluntarily contribute to it.

“No country runs public education on just voluntary funds. What if the Fund is not considered attractive and you don’t really get as much as you are expecting. We can’t leave the destiny of our children’s quality education to just a voluntary fund where we don’t really know the projections. You cannot just depend on voluntary funds, you can’t run education that way. You need a concrete plan and you need a well-defined funding source. It’s clear that government is struggling to fund it and struggling to identify a clear funding source.”

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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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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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