Labour consultant Austin Gamey has called on the government to communicate the number of people it can realistically employ each year, particularly within the education sector.
His comments come on the back of picketing by some members of the 2022 batch of trained teachers from the Colleges of Education, who say they have gone 10 months without pay despite being posted by the Ghana Education Service (GES).
In an interview with Johnnie Hughes on 3FM Sunrise on June 24, Mr. Gamey emphasised the need for transparency to manage expectations among newly trained professionals.
“The government must communicate to Ghanaians the number of people they can employ in a year,” he said. “This way, everyone will know that it’s not compulsory that after training college, you will necessarily be a teacher, even if that’s where your first point of calling is. You can do something else until there are vacancies.”
Some of the affected teachers have meanwhile urged the government to release their funds on time.
“It has been difficult; I have had to negotiate with my landlord to give me time to pay for half. I have also had to assure him that, probably after four or five months, things will be alright and I will pay him the rest. But to be honest with you, I have not been able to clear the debt. After I left for vacation, I found out that my light had been disconnected for owing nine months. I sleep in the dark and rely on friends to iron and charge my phone.” Simon Kofi Nartey, Spokesperson, Aggrieved Newly Posted Teachers, said on 3FM.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of GES, Daniel Fenyi, has assured all 2022 graduates from the Colleges of Education that none of them will be removed from the system or denied employment due to delays in salary payments or the issuance of staff identification numbers.
“Not a single one of the College of Education graduates will be laid off with the excuse that they don’t have their staff ID or have not received their salary,” Mr. Fenyi stated.
“We are working, we’ve had conversations with the necessary stakeholders, and we are almost at the conclusion,” he assured.
His reassurance comes after some graduates staged a protest, picketing at the GES headquarters in Accra over 10 months of unpaid salaries following their official postings.
