Teacher Unions Raise Red Flag Over New Contact Hours

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Four teacher unions have called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to withdraw the entire semester system at the pre-tertiary level for wider consultations with stakeholders before it is implemented.

According to the unions, the unilateral change in the school calender from the trimester system to the semester system to cover pupils at the primary and the kindergarten levels by the GES was arbitrary and an imposition on the major stakeholders in education, of which the unions were a part.

The unions are the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers-Ghana (CCT-Gh) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU).

Consultations

“We, therefore, call on the GES to immediately withdraw the policy, pending full consultations with the unions in education and other major stakeholders, and do serve notice that failure to do so will be resisted fiercely,” the unions said in a joint statement issued yesterday.

It was signed by the General Secretary of GNAT, Mr Thomas Musah; the President of NAGRAT, Mr Angel Carbonu; the President of CCT-Gh, Mr King Awudu Ali, and the General Secretary of TEWU, Mr Mark Dankyira Korankye.

According to the unions, at no point in time were they consulted on such a major policy decision.

Explaining further, they said in their statement that the hours required to work per day and per week in the educational sector had been a bother to them, especially when instructional and working hours had been increased unilaterally without

By: graphiconline.com