GNAT assists displaced teachers in Volta Region
The leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has toured the communities inundated as result of the spillage of the Akosombo and Kpong dams and presented GH¢100,000 to affected teachers.
Advertisement
The Teachers Fund also presented GH¢50,000 to the affected teachers in the North and South Tongu districts where most of the affected teachers could be found.
This was after the GNAT leadership had assessed the impact of the disaster on education because both learners and teachers have been affected.
The visit was also aimed at assisting GNAT to map out strategies for restoring teaching and learning services in the affected communities.
The flood disaster in the lower Volta basin has inflicted significant devastation on the communities in its path.
Seriously impacted are educational infrastructure, some of which now serve as safe havens for displaced persons.
Both learners and facilitators have all become victims as some have lost educational materials and are putting up with family and friends while others are in settlement camps.
The team from GNAT was led by its President, Rev. Isaac Owusu; the General Secretary, Thomas Musah; the Volta Regional Chairman of GNAT; David Kata, and other national and regional executives of GNAT.
The delegation made the presentations when they visited displaced teachers putting up at the St Kizito Senior High Technical School at Mepe.
Emergency measures
The President of GNAT called on the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to put in place interim measures to ensure learners in the affected areas were not left behind.
Rev. Owusu assured the teachers and the learners that GNAT would continue to provide whatever support was needed to ameliorate their plight.
The General Secretary of GNAT, Mr Musah, emphasised the need for learners to have access to continuous, equitable, inclusive and quality education under emergency situations, such as the flooding in line with UNESCO education in emergencies (EiE) principle.
He said GNAT would engage the inter-ministerial committee formed to address spillage-induced flooding on the need to come out with measures, including compensation packages, for affected teachers.
Mr Musah said that was important to address the challenges in education in the affected communities and prevent social vices such as teenage pregnancies and child labour.
Numbers
Mr Kata on his part, said 300 teachers in 70 schools from basic to second cycle schools in the Volta and Oti regions had been displaced.
Mr Kata added that 2,000 schoolchildren from the affected areas had also been impacted negatively by the spillage and denied access to education.
The GNAT regional chairman, therefore, appealed to the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to make teaching and learning materials available to the volunteers engaging learners in the various displacement camps.
