GES asked to restore sacked head teacher

Mr. Samuel Bannerman-Mensah, Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), has been asked to restore Mrs. Helena Abrokwah, Head teacher of Padmore Street Primary One School in Tema, to her former position of head teacher within one week.

The Tema Municipal Council of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), which made the request after discussing the issue at an emergency meeting on Friday, said its members would take the necessary action if their request was not met.

Mr. George Asare Yamoah, Tema Municipal Chairman of GNAT, said 'If by the 9th of November 2007, Mrs. Abrokwah had not been restored, the council will be compelled to consider the next line of action."

Mr. Yamoah explained that the delay in restoring Mrs Abrokwah to her former position had held-up the work of the committee set up to investigate the issue.

He said the hold-up was also against the first provision of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between GNAT and the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GCE) on October 12, this year, to restore Mrs Abrokwah to her former position.

He said the second provision of the MOU was the setting up of a committee at the GES headquarters to investigate the circumstances under which she was transferred and demoted as a head teacher.

Mr. Yamoah indicated that teachers in the Municipality were not comfortable with the unnecessary delay of her restoration and were ready to consider the next line of action.

Mrs. Helena Abrokwah, in a letter signed by Mrs. Lucy Kwapong, Tema Municipal Director of Education, was demoted and transferred to teach at the Batsonaa Primary School for allegedly speaking to journalists on the low enrolment of pupils in her school on 'My First Day at School.'