Sylvia Isabella Laryea, Headmistress, Methodist Girls’ Senior High School
[dropcap]A [/dropcap]group of disgruntled teachers of Methodist Girls’ Senior High School at Mamfe in the Eastern Region of Ghana have petitioned the Minister of Education, Hon. Mathew Opoku Prempeh, EOCO and other state institutions over alleged “abuse of office and administrative power” of Ms. Sylvia Isabella Laryea, the Headmistress.
According to the petitioners, their “quest for accountability [of Ms. Sylvia Isabella Laryea] have been met with a series of intimidations, frustrations and victimisation which have subsequently led to we [ads1]suffering severe injustice in the service they have worked diligently for several years.”
The petition to the new Education Minister exposed the inability of the Ghana Education Service (GES) to intervene in the matter which has led them to the law court.
“This petition is however, to bring to the notice of the current administration some of the issues that in our opinion need urgent attention, failure of which would not inure to the good standards of the noble profession” – The petitioners said.
The petitioners said the tussle between them and the head started when they “alleged that the headmistress had failed to account for thirty thousand cedis (Ghc30,000) of teacher’s welfare fund.”
According to them, their quest for the accountability of the GHc30,000 has led the headmistress to allegedly “use very innocent students under her care as agents to frame up and scandalize teachers who seek accountability.”
“In furtherance of her evil and diabolic agenda, Ms Sylvia Isabella Laryea uses false allegations as basis to transfer teachers from the school as a means of avoiding her duty to account to her teachers. She used the then Eastern Regional Director of Education, who invited us by a letter dated 5th April, 2016 to appear before a certain Regional Disciplinary Committee on 12th and 14th of April, 2016.
The headmistress ignored the GES rules on procedure for taking disciplinary actions and as stipulated in Article 23 of the 1992 Constitution of the republic.” the petition stated.
The petitioners also said, they have noticed the Koforidua office of the Ghana Education Service was a “vehicle” for the unlawful transfer agenda of accountability seeking teachers of the school since they had several opportunities to intervene.
“We notified the Ghana Education Service that there was a carefully orchestrated plan by the Headmistress to instigate an unlawful transfer of some of us and we through our lawyers in a letter dated 24th May, 2016 demanded a seizure to such acts but we were again ignored. We were, whiles in the usual course of our duties given highly suspicious transfer letters on 4th November, 2016 but same letters were dated 17th October and were to take effect on 28th October in absolute disregard of the instructions of the then Director General to seize all transfers when you resumed office.”
The aggrieved teachers also said the headmistress, Ms. Sylvia Laryea has since restrained them from entering the school premises and created the impression that they have vacated post and has taken steps to get their salaries blocked just to frustrate them. “This we find very inhuman and an abuse of our Fundamental Human Rights. We have NOT received salaries for the past seven (7) months.” They added.
Source: Awake News | Efo Korsi Senyo
