Tema GNAT against ejection of Education Directorate

The Tema Chapter of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has pleaded with stakeholders of education to find a lasting solution to the accommodation problems facing the Tema Metropolitan Education Directorate.
The Association noted that immediate actions must be taken by well-meaning Ghanaians, especially the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) to pressurize the Tema Development Corporation (TDC) to postpone the ejection of the Directorate.
Mr George Asare Yamoah, President of GNAT, Tema told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Friday that education officers currently worked under poor conditions.

Water supply to the offices has been disconnected, and the TDC has further threatened to disconnect electricity supply to the directorate in addition to barricading the premises.

The GNAT expressed concern about the well-being of its members working at the directorate as the education office annex had already been pulled down, a sign that TDC would eventually demolish the building.

He said the Association was pleading with the TDC to exercise restraint as the TMA made frantic efforts to mobilize funds to build an education office on a land acquired for the directorate at Community Two.
Mr Yamoah questioned the fate of teachers and students in the metropolis when TDC throws out the education officers from the premises indicating that the office was the life wire of education in the metropolis.
He noted that it was unfortunate that TDC was undermining the implementation of government's educational policies that were geared toward improving the quality of the national human resource base.
“Instead of helping to promote government policies, TDC which is a government entity is placing value on money instead of education,” he said.
The Association says it would have no option than to advice itself if the TDC implemented its quit order, since working in the directorate is one of the highest aspiration of every teacher.
The TDC, in a letter requested 11 government establishments operating on its premises to vacate the place by May 31, this year.
The establishments include the Ghana Education Service, New Times Corporation, Rent Control, Land Title Registry, Judicial Service, and the Survey Department.
The rest are Department of Social Welfare, Department of Co-operatives, Statistical Service Department, Department of Culture and Community Development.
Several petitions written by the establishments to stakeholders to intervene for the postponement of the exercise have not yielded any meaningful results.
Five months after the expiration of the ejection order, some establishments, including the Department of Social Welfare and the Education Directorate are still struggling to get a suitable alternative accommodation.