STATEMENT CALLING FOR THE TERMINATION OF APPOINTMENT OF DR. ERIC NKANSAH AS THE DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF THE GHANA EDUCATION SERVICE
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press,
We (Teacher Unions, GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT-Gh.) welcome you all warmly to this Press Conference, which marks our 4th November deadline on the appointment of a Banker instead of Educationist as Director General of GES. Today, we shall announce our next line of action on the termination of the appointment of the Director-General of GES and subsequent appointment of a Banker as the New Director General. The issue which dominated the media space - both print and electronic, over the past fortnight or so.
A week ago, the Teacher Unions in the GES explained our mandate as been responsible for negotiating the terms and conditions of service, the scheme of service and the code of professional conduct for the teaching personnel of the Ghana Education Service in accordance with the Collective Agreement 2020 which was signed between the Ghana Education Service on one hand and the Teacher Unions on the other.
We indicated our candid view as provided for in Section 2 of our Collective Agreement between GES & Teacher Unions (2020), which states that;
The purpose of this Agreement is to set forth the condition of service relating to salaries, wages, hours of work and other conditions of service and rules of employment. Both parties do recognize and agree to promote the growth and development of co-operation, trust, respect and fairness and endeavour to uphold these virtues in their policies and standards of GES management.
The parties believe that these attitudes can be encouraged best when it is made clear that employer and unions who were involved in the negotiation of this agreement were not anti union or anti management but were sincerely concerned with the best interest and well-being of the Ghana education service and all teaching employees as well as creating an environment that provides satisfaction, incentives and motivation for hard work and thereby increase productivity.
It was from this background that we made our reaction known on the dismissal of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, and subsequent appointment of a Banker as an Ag. Director-General, contrary to the Substantive and Procedural rules of our Collective Agreement 2020.
It must be stated that the Director General position is the preserve of Educationists and has been occupied by Educationists since its creation in 1974 to date. For the avoidance of doubt, seventeen (17) Director Generals have been appointed to serve at the GES. Out of this number, five (5) were Professors from the Academia, who were known to have operated in the education space. The rest were all higher officers of the GES and remained as such, even under the military regimes. Therefore, the appointment of a Banker instead of Educationist is a manifestation of lack of confidence in Teachers to manage their own affairs and disregard to established Scheme of Service and progression within the GES.
The Teacher Unions did not only register their protest but also, found it unacceptable for a Banker to be appointed as a Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, GES, instead of Educationist at a time when many teachers who did the same courses and related ones were rejected by GES because it is not related to education. We stated that both the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, should apologise to teachers for accepting the very qualification they rejected when teachers presented them.
Extension of Service of Mr. Anthony Boateng, Deputy Director-General of GES
With Mr. Anthony Boateng, the Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Education Service who was granted one more year contract extension, we stated our opposition to the said contract extension, and thereby sounded note of caution, that we would vehemently and vigorously resist any attempt to bring Mr. Anthony Boateng back into the system, and that the consequences of any such attempt may be too dire to handle.
We finally cautioned that should government fail to heed to our call, Leadership of the Teacher Unions would not be able to control the actions or inactions of their members, and the Ministry of Education and GES may have themselves to blame, in the final analysis.
Call to Action
We have been compelled under the current circumstances to publicly communicate to Ghanaians on our intention to go on strike having reached the November 4 deadline we gave government. Consequently, we have decided to embark on strike from today, Friday, November 4, 2022. By this, we are informing the general public that we are withdrawing our services in all the pre-tertiary education institutions.
Thank you.
THOMAS T. MUSAH, GENERAL SECRETARY, GNAT
ANGEL CARBONU, PRESIDENT, NAGRAT
KING ALI AWUDU, PRESIDENT, CCT-GH
DATED: 4TH NOVEMBER, 2022
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