Some teachers in the Northern, North East and Savannah Regions on Tuesday expressed their displeasure over government’s decision to increase public sector salaries by 4 and 7 percent for 2021 and 2022 respectively.
The teachers want the government to reconsider the decision to avoid any major industrial unrest.
The teachers were speaking in Bole to mark this year’s World Teachers Day.
Addressing participants at a durbar to mark the day at Bole in the Savannah Region, the Northern Regional Chairman of GNAT, Attah Longiya, bemoaned the poor working conditions of teachers in Ghana.
He said teachers were unhappy with the 4% and 7% salary increases for 2021 and 2022 respectively, and called on the government to reconsider the rates of increases.
“On behalf of teachers in the northern regions we register our displeasure over this year’s 4% and next year’s 7% salary increments. We are calling on the President to look again into it. We the teachers of this his country are not happy with the percentage of salary increments looking at the current market situations.”
Mr. Longiya also called on the government and the Ghana Education Service to expedite action on the upgrading of teachers who have completed their studies in prescribed course areas.
“I want to reiterate the call on government to expedite action on the upgrading of teachers who have completed their studies in prescribed course areas. I again call on government to as a matter of urgency place teachers who were successful in the last promotion interviews on their rightful scale. Teachers who qualify for responsibility allowances should be placed accordingly. The Ghanaian teacher is not asking for article 71 office holders’ salary.”
The Dean of the Faculty of Sustainable Studies at the University of Development Studies, Dr. Sulemana Achanso, who was the guest speaker, reminded teachers of their obligations to the state.
“Let’s be reminded of our obligations. Our professional obligations require us to go the extra mile to serve clients, who in this context are our students. No matter how unfriendly our working conditions are as teachers, let’s remember that our joy does not lie in how much money we make or how much wealth we amass, but the quality of our products.”
The Bolewura in a speech read for him by Safo Amantana called on government to train and post adequate teachers to all schools in Ghana in order to meet the Sustainable Development goal four.
“The situation is urgent, to achieve universal primary education by 2030, Bole traditional area alone needs 2,000 more teachers. In my village Gbilinpe, from class 1 to class 6 plus the little ones we have only one teacher, so the situation is bad.”
Since 1994, October 5 each year has been set aside to celebrate and recognise the contributions of teachers the world over.
It commemorates the signing of the 1966 UNESCO/ILO recommendation concerning the status of teachers, which is a standard-setting instrument that addresses the status and situations of teachers around the world.
This year’s celebration is dubbed: ‘Teachers Wanted: Reclaiming Teaching and Learning for Human-Centered Recovery’.
World Teachers’ Day aims to focus on appreciating, assessing, and improving the educators of the world and to provide an opportunity to consider issues related to teachers and teaching as a whole.
The Members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers in the Northern, North East, and Savannah Regions gathered in Bole to mark the day with a float and a durbar where they awarded 18 teachers for their contributions to the association.
Source:Fiilafmonline/CitiNews
