Suspend Pre-Tertiary Bill now; Volta, Oti teacher unions to government
Teacher unions in the Volta and Oti regions have called on the government to suspend the Pre-Tertiary Education Bill as its passage will have dire consequences on the teaching profession in Ghana.
According to the unions, the bill, which was hurriedly laid in Parliament for passage without consulting stakeholders, had the tendency to collapse the entire
education system.
Advertisement
Giving some details of the bill, which they described as not beneficial to their welfare at a press conference in Ho, the Regional Chairman of the Ghana National
Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr David Kattah, said the bill gave power to the political appointee (Head of Local Government Service), to appoint heads and staff of the district units and be responsible for their promotion, re-posting, discipline and dismissal in the district education offices and schools.
Bill
Also, according to the bill, only a political party appointee — the Head of Local Government Service, had the power to effect inter-district transfer of a head teacher. The administration and control of budgetary allocations to basic schools would also be determined by the district assembly and the bill restricted reposting of teachers in schools within the district only.
The bill, he further explained, would cede effective responsibility for the provision and management of basic schools to the district assemblies, management of senior high schools to the regional education directorate, and allow all TVET management to come under their own director general and be entirely independent of GES.
Bill dangerous
Mr Kattah said the teacher unions, GNAT, NAGRAT, CCT-GH and TEWU were unhappy with the current situation.
“Why the rush in pushing for the passage of the bill when your major stakeholders have issues with it?” he questioned.
“The tertiary bill is dangerous and harmful to the teaching profession and set out to destroy the Ghana Education Service management arrangements and to further enhance the winner takes all agenda of the political class,” he said.
“We the unions in the Volta and Oti regions declare that we stand in solidarity with the leadership and colleagues in other regions to resist the passage of the bill in its current form with all our might and strength. We will rise to preserve the management body called GES. It is our heritage,” he stated.