Teachers of colleges of education threaten to go on strike but Ministry of Education expresses surprise
The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) has declared an indefinite strike starting today, September 12, 2016.
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The strike is to press home its demand for the government to migrate the tutors of colleges of education to a tertiary status and pay remunerations that will reflect their new status.
Speaking to journalists, the National Secretary of CETAG, Mr Prince Obeng-Himah, said although colleges of education were classified as tertiary institutions under Act 2012 (Act 847), the rank of tutors was yet to reflect that change in the status of the colleges.
Surprise
Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary, Mr Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, has expressed the ministry’s surprise at the decision of CETAG.
“The decision to embark on the strike comes as a surprise to us because at every stage of the process we involved the members, briefed them and they have been very cooperative until now,” he said.
But Mr Obeng-Himah maintained that the tutors were prepared to stay away from their duties until such a time that the government would meet their demand.
He insisted that the government had reneged on its promise to ensure that their present status as tutors in a tertiary institution was reflected in their remunerations.
Suspend strike
Explaining further the efforts being made by the government to address the concerns of the tutors, Mr Ablakwa said about three weeks ago he personally chaired a meeting which was attended by the leadership of CETAG, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), during which the FWSC made it clear that it had completed its part and forwarded the necessary recommendations to the Ministry of Finance.
“After that meeting, the leadership told us that they were going to brief their members. We never heard from them until this development,” he said, adding, “We thought they understood us.”
He appealed to the members of CETAG to rescind their decision, explaining that the Ministry of Finance had communicated to the Ministry of Education that it had concluded with all the analysis and that “it will officially write to us”.
Negotiations far advanced
“So we are waiting for that official communication which will indicate the effective date the migration will take off,” he said.
Mr Ablakwa expressed worry that the current position taken by the association had the potential to mar the process, which had almost been concluded.
He said discussions had gone a long way and the ministry really expected the association to suspend the intended strike.
Assurance
He explained that the difficult aspect of the process was the negotiation, which was successfully done with the agreement that the ministry would migrate all the tutors from the Ghana Education Service (GES) to the NCTE.
He used the opportunity to assure teacher trainees that the ministry was constantly in touch with the management of the colleges of education to ensure that the academic year took off smoothly.
The deputy minister gave an assurance that the ministry would continue to engage with CETAG and the management of the colleges to find amicable solution to the challenges confronting them.