A member of the communications team of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kofi Ameyaw has appealed to the striking teachers to resume work.
He said the government is sensitive to their needs and has demonstrated it in recent past when schools were closed for ten months due to the outbreak of the coronavirus yet teachers were paid their full salaries.
Speaking on the New Day show on TV3 with Johnnie Hughes, he said “we appeal to them, to their good conscience. We have come to them before at the time schools were closed for ten months and that they were not going to school, they were not teaching, we paid their salaries and all other allowances that came with their salaries.
“That is what we did when Covid struck. If a government was able to do this even when practically they were not going to school, my sister who comes directly after me is a teacher, at the time she will tell me how grateful she is for the fact that even though they were not going to school, they were being paid.
“So I am just saying that yes, we are living in tough times, we can only appeal that they go back to school and go and teach our young ones and I am very hopeful, with the background I have given, that the government is sensitive to their needs.”
President Akufo-Addo has also appealed to the teachers to resume work pending the outcome of the negotiations with the government.
He indicated that teaching should resume in order not to affect the education of the children as the government also works assiduously to resolve the economic challenges facing the country.
In his Edul-Adha message on Saturday July 9, Mr Akufo-Addo said “I am aware that some teacher unions have declared strike in pursuit of a twenty per cent Cost of Living Allowance. I am happy that yesterday, the teachers were joined by other members of the organised labour under the Trades Union Congress to sit down with government led by the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations and the Minister for Education to begin negotiations on this matter.
“I want to add my voice to the appeal by the outstanding Minister for Employment and Labour Relations Hon Ignatius Baffur Awauh , Member of Parliament for Sunyani West for the teachers to return to the classrooms, pending the outcome of the negotiations so that the education of our children, some of whom are preparing to sit their final exams, is not affected.
“We are in a difficult place, the world is in a difficult place. Leaders around the world, like we are doing here in Ghana, are working assiduously to resolve the fundamental challenges that have plunged the world into the current economic conditions in which it finds itself. But, just as the efforts of Hagga resulted in the discovery of Zamzam well, from which we drink these day, I am confident that soon, we shall discoverer our own Zamzam well.”
On Monday, 4th July 2022, the four (4) Unions in Education, namely Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), TEWU and Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana, withdrew their services in all the Pre-Tertiary educational space, to back their demand for the Cost-of-Living Allowance (COLA).
This involved both Teaching and Non-Teaching staff.
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana