Ejisu-Juaben teachers demand transfer of Education Director

Ejisu (Ash.), May 11, GNA - More than 900 teachers in the Ejisu-Juaben District in the Ashanti Region on Wednesday went on a three-hour peaceful demonstration to demand the immediate transfer of the District Education Director, Mr Festus Boadi-Suadwa.

The demonstrators wearing red armbands and carrying placards, threatened to withdraw their services, if by the end of Monday, May 16, he was still at post.

Some of the placards read "Director nie, insults nie", "Director is more harmful than Osama Bin-Laden", "Where are the transfer money, common exam fees", "No more Boom utterances" and "Director Liar". In a petition sent through the acting District Chief Executive, Mr Yaw Ahenkora Afrifa, they accused the Education Director of disrespect for teachers, lack of transparency and unjust placement of embargo on salaries of officers and head teachers.

They also complained of non-payment of transfer grants to them, abolition of inter-circuit sports festivals, all on his orders, and blamed him for poor organisation of schools cultural programmes in the district.

The teachers also cited the recent demotion of the head teacher of the Ejisu D/A Junior Secondary School (JSS) and transfer of a teacher of the school over a misunderstanding the two had with the Director's wife as one of the causes of their agitation.

Receiving the petition from Mr A. S. Nkrumah, the District GNAT Secretary, Mr Afrifa advised the teachers to remain calm as the appropriate authorities act on it.

He said he had already been in touch with the Regional Director of Education to find a way of dealing with the situation. The acting District Chief Executive, who praised them for the peaceful manner they organised their demonstration told the teachers not to do anything that might throw the academic calendar out of gear.