Colleges of Education teachers suspend strike
The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has suspended its indefinite strike, effective last Thursday, September 22, 2016.
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Accordingly, members of CETAG have been directed to go back to the classroom, while all principals of the colleges of education (CoEs) have been notified.
This follows approval by the Ministry of Finance for staff of the CoEs to be migrated from the Ghana Education Service (GES) payroll to that of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) and the payment of the new levels.
A letter signed by the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper, addressed to the Controller and Accountant-General and copied to all the relevant parties stated: “Following the attainment of tertiary status by the 37 colleges of education, approval is hereby given for staff of the colleges of education on the Ghana Education Service payroll to be migrated onto the NCTE payroll.”
Suspension of strike
The President of CETAG, Rev. Joseph Nkyi Asamoah, who spoke to the Daily Graphic in an interview, said: “We have suspended the strike after a council meeting held in Kumasi last Thursday.”
He said at that meeting, it was agreed that since the Ministry of Education had produced a letter from the Ministry of Finance indicating that the payment would be effected from October this year, “we should suspend the strike until further notice”.
Meeting
On September 19, 2016, the ministry and the executive of CETAG concluded a meeting, during which the CETAG executive agreed to the terms of payment as presented by the Ministry of Finance.
It came up at that meeting that the Ministry of Finance had given the green light for the migration and the payment of staff of the CoEs from the GES payroll to that of the NCTE and the payment of the new levels from October this year.
The CETAG had declared an indefinite strike starting from September 12, 2016 to press home its demand for the government to migrate tutors of CoEs to a tertiary status and pay remunerations that would reflect their new status.
Commendation
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Education, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, commended the membership of CETAG, particularly its leadership, for their cooperation.
He promised that the ministry would honour its agreed date of October for the payment of the new levels of salaries.
