The leaders of the Teacher Trainee Association of Ghana (TTAG), have temporarily called off their indefinite strike which begun on Monday, May 18, 2015.<\/p>\n
A statement signed by the association\u2019s president, Osei Kofi Daniel indicated that the decision to suspend the strike was informed by the positive response they have received from the Education Ministry.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”l8P0XVZZAiOrDWmOVXuhhBa9iXPpTWVe”]Government has scrapped the payment of monthly allowances for teacher trainees and has replaced it with a student loan scheme.<\/p>\n
The government explained that the continuous payment of the allowance was a constraining factor<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>that was limiting the number of students the existing 38 teacher trainee colleges could admit.<\/p>\n But the teacher trainees are still insisting the allowances be brought back.<\/p>\n They therefore embarked on an indefinite strike<\/a><\/strong> <\/span>to demand the immediate reinstatement of their allowances.<\/p>\n They were also demanding that the government address issues relating to the posting of the current level 200 and subsequent batches of teacher trainees.<\/p>\n According to the TTAG president, all the major associations of the teaching fraternity including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) have expressed interest in helping them negotiate their concerns with government.<\/p>\n He said since negotiations are set to begin, it is important for the association to respect the Labour Act 2003 Act 161(1) which states that \u201ca party to an industrial dispute shall not resort to strike or lock \u2013 out during the period when negotiation, mediation or arbitration proceedings are in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n The TTAG leadership has thus appealed to its members to return to school, \u201cstay calm and support us as we go through the negotiation with the Ministry of Education.\u201d<\/p>\n The TTAG president expressed his gratitude to all teacher trainees for \u201crallying their unflinching support behind us in the period of our strike.\u201d<\/p>\n He however made a passionate appeal to the media and other relevant stakeholders to \u201cassist us in this our fight for the reinstatement of the allowances.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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