Tema Teachers Strike

Teachers in Tema have called for action against the Tema Municipal Director of Education, Mrs. Lucy Kwapong, following the demotion and transfer of a colleague teacher, Madam Helena Abrokwa.

The teachers have as well expressed concern about Mrs. Kwapong's administration, saying she had overloaded teachers in the municipality with work.

Speaking to DAILY GUIDE, the Tema Municipal Secretary of
the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Mr. Robert Addotey, described the Municipal Director's action as being contrary to the terms and conditions spelt out in the Ghana Education Service (GES) procedure meant to punish errant teachers.

He explained that a proper way of punishing a teacher was to form a committee with a representative from GNAT or any other member to be nominated by the GNAT leadership, and the errant teacher invited to face the committee.

According to Mr. Addotey, the representative from GNAT is to ensure fair representation for the effected teacher, who if found culpable would face the necessary sanction.

“But in the case of Madam Abrokwa, such a thing was not done, and all of sudden a letter was issued, asking her to immediately move from the Padmore Street School '1' to Baatsona TMA School,” he said.

A letter addressed to the Director General of GES and signed by Mr. John Nyoagbe on behalf of the General Secretary of GNAT in Accra, stated that findings after a wider consultation did not show that in terms of substance or procedure Mrs. Abrokwa breached any of the rules or regulations to warrant any punitive measure, let alone punishment of that magnitude.

The letter described the action of Mrs. Kwapong as hasty and high-handed and also a gross violation of conditions and schemes of GES as well as the code of professional conduct for teachers.

According to the letter, the action of the Municipal Director had caused an embarrassment not only to the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports (MOESS), but to GES also as a corporate entity, particularly at this time when teachers and MOESS were jointly propagating the seeds of the educational reforms.

The teachers therefore called on GES and MOESS to take action by calling Mrs. Kwapong to order, so that she would not repeat such an action in the future.

They as well advised the authorities to ask Mrs. Kwapong to immediately withdraw the said letter of transfer and demotion and unconditionally reinstate Mrs. Abrokwa.

It would be recalled that Mrs. Abrokwa was last month ordered by the Tema Municipal Director of Education to move from her former school, Padmore Street School '1' where she was Headteacher, to the Baatsona TMA School as a classroom teacher.

Mrs. Abrokwa, who had taught for 34 years, had been a headteacher for the past 15 years.

Mrs. Abrokwa was allegedly punished for low enrollment in her school as at the time Mrs. Kwapong and Mr. David Quaye Annang, the Tema Municipal Chief Executive were on a visit to the school on September 11 during “my first day in school”, a day set aside to mark the beginning of the new educational reforms.

From Simmons Yussif Kewura, Tema