Ghanaian teachers embark on indefinite strike over unpaid salary arrears
On Wednesday, public-sector graduate teachers in pre-tertiary
institutions across Ghana declared an indefinite strike over unpaid
salary arrears.
President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu,
at a news conference said the teachers took the decision due to the
deliberate actions and inaction of the government regarding the arrears.
“We have no other alternative but to advise ourselves. When the
senior high schools reopen on April 16, nobody should expect our members
to be present,” said Carbonu.
According to him, no convincing reasons have been given by the
government for the non-payment of the salary arrears after a series of
meetings between the two parties. “What we see are orchestrations,
tactics, maneuvering and manipulations employed by the Ministry of
Finance to drag its feet and possibly refuse to repay the arrears at
all,” the NAGRAT president added.
The arrears, amounting to 50 million cedis (11.33 million U.S.
dollars) accrued from 2013 are in respect of salary adjustments,
up-grading and promotions, vehicle maintenance allowance as well as
transfer grants. Carbonu said it also included the salaries of newly
recruited teachers into the Ghana Education Service (GES) who had taught
for several months but were yet to be paid.
The strike action by the graduate teachers is set to have a toll on
education, as final-year students in senior high schools here began
writing their West African Secondary School Certificate Examination on
Tuesday. The teachers are usually engaged as invigilators and
supervisors for the examinations.
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