Government Must Listen To Ttag At Least! By Boye Nii-lantey Williams

A nationwide strike not to attend lectures by the members of the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) begun yesterday. It’s very unfortunate that, issues have gotten to this point where students who are being trained as teachers of this great nation will decide to go on strike rather than to be in class to learn. We should not have come this far.

The strike was followed by series of Press Conferences and Press releases by the leadership of the Association. The issues raised by the Association and its members are:

1. The Scrapping off of their Teacher Trainee Allowances by the Government through The Ministry of Education and replacing it with the Student Loans Trust Fund (SLTF), Feeding grants and to increase the intake of Students within the various Colleges of education across the country.

2. The second issue also has to do with the Association requesting to know the fate of all level 200 students who must be posted to begin their teachings practices before they finish their various programmes of study.

The aforementioned issues have raised many concerns across the length and breadth of Ghana. It has been debated upon by many across academia and others. This has made it one of the top issues in Ghana today. Education is a pillar and must not be toiled with as it is being seen now. All our efforts and many others must be pushed into that sector so as to help develop the human capacity of this country.

On this note, I humbly want to submit that:

1. Government through the Ministry of Education and its other agencies must settle the issues of Allowances once and for all for peace to prevail on the various campuses of the Colleges of Education. They must involve all the stakeholders in resolving this matter immediately.

2. Government through the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service must also look at the issues of posting all Trainees who are due to be posted. This will go a long way to prevent any future challenges which I am confident that TTAG have envisaged now; and ensure that Trainee Teachers who are needed most especially in remote areas get to their stations on time. So that pupils and students could have trained teachers at all times.

In conclusion, I would urge the Government and its agencies such as the Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service (GES) and National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) to help in addressing the issues immediately for peace to prevail.

The various Principals of the Colleges of Education must also be directly involve in finding a permanent solutions to the allowances as well as the postings of the students who are about to finish their studies.

The leadership and the entire membership of the Association must also press hard to meet their demands using every legitimate means available to them. This, I am confident that in the end all the parties will be satisfied for academic work to begin.

On this note, I sympathize with my colleagues in all the Colleges of Education across the country. We shall go through to the end and we shall all prevail.

Aluta Continua…!!! Victoria Ascerta…!!!

SIGNED

Boye Nii-Lantey Williams

FOR NUGS PRESIDENT 2015

THE BOYE IS COMING ✊