Members of the Upper East Regional branch of the Unemployed Distance Graduate Teachers Association (UDGTA) have appealed to the President to intervene to ensure that the Ghana Education Service (GES) stops the practice of recruiting teachers from the colleges of education to the neglect of teachers from the public universities who hold similar or even higher qualifications.
They further threatened legal action in the next two weeks if their grievances were not addressed.
At a press conference at Bolgatanga on Tuesday, September 22, 2020, the Convener of the UDGTA, Mr Daniel Asakibokire pointed out that “the Education Act 2008 (Act 778) established the national teaching council to among other things issue professional license to Ghanaian teachers”.
“As published on the national teaching council’s website, to be a licensed teacher by the teaching council means one must possess the minimum competencies needed to qualify to teach in Ghana,” Mr Asakibokire stressed.
He wondered why they were being trained through distance learning yet they were sidelined any time there was an opportunity to recruit teachers?
“Permit me to ask; is it a crime to become a teacher through distance education? Is distance education illegal?” he further asked.
Mr Asakibokire expressed displeasure over “the complete disregard for this Act in recent recruitments which for us is completely unacceptable”.
According to him, due to the observance of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) protocols, only a few members were asked to come and support the press conference but there are the over 6,000 unemployed distance graduate teachers in the Region.
Members
Miss Victoria Adongo, a member of the UDGTA, said for now, life was very difficult for her as she is currently struggling to feed her children. She said she was currently selling some vegetables and salt in the Bolgatanga market just to survive.
The Secretary and Organizer to the UDGTA, Messrs Samuel Awuba and Issahaku Muniru respectively both expressed concern about the unfair treatment being meted out to them.
Source: Graphic.com.gh
