Teacher Union’s strike; their demands are unlawful and unrealistic – Former NUGS President

Former president of the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS), Emmanuel Yiadom Boakye, has called the three teacher unions’ current strike action illegal and dishonorable.

He asserts that it is absurd for teacher unions to protest against a colleague of theirs who has been named Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) on the grounds that he is not a strict adherent to the theories of education.

Since the D-G post would be managerial and participative in nature, Mr. Yiadom Boakye claims that the teacher unions’ behavior reeks of illegality and frivolity in a statement that was copied to Ghanatodayonline.com.

According to him the condition of service of Teachers is nothing to write home about as compared to other government workers even after upgrading their status with the Teacher-Licensing but the unions have turned deaf ears to the plight of teachers.

“Not to talk of the inadequate Teaching and Learning Materials (ie. Teaching aids and textbooks) in our basic schools especially. Teacher Unions are used to it???

Some newly posted Teachers have not received their staff IDs after over 10 months of postings but our Teacher Unions are failing to see this. The sad reality is they would be forced to pay dues for all these months to these Teacher Unions as soon as they’re paid” he added.

Read the full statement below:

TEACHER UNION’S STRIKE; THEIR DEMANDS ARE UNLAWFUL AND  UNREALISTIC.

ON THE APPOINTMENT OF GES DG.

Section 19 (1) of the Pre-Tertiary Education Act 2020 states that “There shall be APPOINTED by the PRESIDENT in accordance with the advice of the Council given in consultation with the Public Services Commission, a DIRECTOR GENERAL of the Service who shall be the chief executive of the Service.  I hereby congratulate Dr. Eric Nkansah on his appointment as Director General of the Ghana Education Service.

Until his appointment as DG of GES, he was not only the director in charge of tertiary education, at the ministry of education but the TECHNICALADVISOR to the minister of education. He sat in almost all meetings with these labour unions including UTAG, and nobody had a problem with that.

Dr. Nkansah started as a teacher in the year 2000 at Christian Education Complex Junior High School (JHS), Kintampo, in the Bono East Region of Ghana. He’s also been full-time lecturer at Kumasi Technical University (from 2012) and a part-time lecturer at the Graduate School of KNUST. So, put his banking career aside

Also, there’s no law in Ghana or in the Pre-Tertiary Education Act 2020 that says the GES DG should be from the Teaching profession alone. They should give us a break.

ON THE TEACHER UNION’S

The challenges facing the Teaching fraternity sadly have not caught the attention of these Teacher Unions for a possible strike but the appointment of a Director-General did, then teachers should be very worried about the people handling their welfare.

The condition of service for Teachers is nothing to write home about as compared to other government workers even after upgrading their status with the Teacher-Licensing.  Teacher Unions are very okay with this????

Not to talk of the inadequate Teaching and Learning Materials (ie. Teaching aids and textbooks) in our basic schools especially. Teacher Unions are used to it???

Some newly posted Teachers have not received their staff IDs after over 10 months of postings but our Teacher Unions are failing to see this. The sad reality is they would be forced to pay dues for all these months to these Teacher Unions as soon as they’re paid

With all the above-mentioned challenges and more couldn’t anger, frustrate and infuriate these Teacher Unions to embark on a strike but the appointment of a Director-General did???  Sigh!!!

The logic is that efficiency and effectiveness at work is not translated by claims of belonging to a certain profession. Management is an art and not transferable simply because you claim to be a practitioner of a certain profession.

Teacher Unions must return to the classroom since their demands are unlawful and unrealistic. They should be ashamed of themselves for making such ridiculous calls.

Source: Ghanatodayonline.com/Louis Gyamerah