The Ghana Education Service has directed headteachers to ensure schools remain open despite the decision of three teacher unions to go on strike. A statement by the GES addressed to headteachers of public schools directed that headteachers should ensure the “safety and well-being of all students in schools.”
According to the statement, the management of GES “read from the media” about the strike action by the three teacher unions. The statement then urged parents to “remain calm” as management is closely monitoring the situation.
Read the full statement below.
Management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) has read from the media that the three (3) Teacher Unions in the Pre-Tertiary Education sector have declared withdrawal of their services effective Wednesday 20th March 2024.
Heads of public Kindergarten and Primary Schools as well as Junior and Senior High Schools have been directed through the Regional and District Directors to mobilise their Management teams to ensure the safety and well-being of all students in schools.
Meanwhile, parents are advised to remain calm and be assured that Management is closely monitoring the situation and will advise on the way forward accordingly.
Regional and District Directors have further been directed to ensure that Heads keep schools open and closely supervise all children who report to school pending further directives from Management of GES.
Meanwhile, the striking teachers are unhappy about the suggestions by the CEO of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission for the labour laws to be changed. Benjamin Arthur, the CEO of FWSC, suggested that the laws governing labour in the country be changed to handle some of the labour agitations in the country.
But the General Secretary of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), Herbert Ako Forson, did not buy into that. Mr Ako Forson expressed his disappointment in the comment by Mr Arthur. According to Ako Forson, negotiations broke down, and nobody contacted the teacher unions to revive the negotiation.
“I am very disappointed in Ing Arthur for calling on stakeholders to start the process of revising the labour laws. He is very aware, and he knows what happened in Koforidua. Negotiations began in Koforidua. It didn’t end well.”
He questioned the fairness the FWSC CEO is asking for since they started the unfairness game. According to him, they only got an invitation to come and continue the negotiations after they announced the strike action, an action he described as “disrespect” to the teachers and unfair despite the FWSC CEO calling for “fairness.”
“You waited, then yesterday at 8 pm, we received letters from Fair Wages inviting us to come and continue with the negotiation. Is that fair? He is calling for fairness. He also mentioned that three people would go and sign. This is an affront to us; this is disrespect to us. I mean, it is not fair, you don’t have to use such statements.”