NAGRAT Negotiates New Conditions Of Service For Industrial Peace And Harmony

The national association of graduate teachers (NAGRAT) are in negotiations for new conditions of service to ensure industrial peace and harmony. It said although progress has been made towards improving the working conditions of teachers, however, teachers were faced with many challenges affecting productivity.

In an interview with the President of the NAGRAT, Mr Eric Angel Carbonu said they have negotiated a new agreement following the expiry of their bargaining agreement since August 2023 with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Ministry of Employment and Labor Relations have now signed Memorandum of Understanding which is called Rules of Engagement and this is the role to guide them and they have sign that document.

Again, Mr Carbonu said their proposal has been given to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission. So therefore, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission will write a letter to invite the Teachers Union and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations to sit and negotiate their Conditions of Service.

"We want the document to be signed before Christmas, because they don't want to come back after Christmas and still use the old conditions of service, he added".

"So therefore Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, and Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations should sign the New Conditions of Service before Christmas, so the moment they return on the first of January 2025 then they have New Conditions of Service they can work with".

Akosombo Dam Spillage: There must be an immediate Intervention by Government to get the Education of the affected children - NAGRAT President showed concern on the sad incident that occurred a month ago.

Akosombo dam spillage has displaced numerous individuals in Ghana, including many students, and has resulted in damage to schools and other educational facilities.

Mr Eric Angel Carbonu, NAGRAT President has expressed concern that, the children who attend school at the flooding areas has been affected already when the disaster occurred till now the children don't go to school.

"Moreover, the same children and the others from other regions will be right in the same BECE, and due to the flooding SHS over there has been closedown from the time the disaster occurred till now".

He emphasized on government intervention on how they can increase the hours of teaching in the affected areas. In other words, they have to make up for the time the children missed.

Mr Carbonu added that, some schools are not habitable for the children to learn in side.

He feared if care is not taken and the children go back to the same building to learn, the school building can even collapsed, so measures should be up in placed.

The NAGRAT president, Mr Eric Angel Carbonu said there must be an immediate intervention ( by government ) to get the education of the children or else the children will suffer.

He disclosed that the Ministry of Education has said they will do some community learning centers for the children.

He further advised the teachers to admit the fact that at the end of the day, they will still return back to the school and meet problems, and challenges so they have to made up their mind that they won't go back to their affected schools and meet their previous classrooms that they knew, because things will changed, and they also have to develop some attitude to meet the changing times.

"The children also have stayed in the house for long especially the basic level, so therefore the way they teach the children will be totally different from the previous days" he added.

Dumenu Charles Selorm