Go Back To School--Minister Charges Striking Teachers Of Colleges Of Education

At a colorful ceremony held at Mount Mary College of Education, Somanya, to mark the 70th anniversary celebration of the College, on Saturday 10th November, 2018, the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education, Prof. Kwesi Yankah urged striking teachers of Colleges of Education to go back to school.

Mount Mary College of Education, established by the American Catholic SVD Missionaries at Agomanya in 1947, is celebrating its 70th anniversary.

The Minister of State responsible for tertiary education, who represented the Senior Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo at the event, as Guest of Honour, was impressed about the ecology of the College and its role in French Education in Ghana. He admonished the relevance of French Education and Language Studies in Ghana as the country is surrounded by French speaking countries in West Africa. He said “President Akufo Addo’s vision and initiative is to ensure that the teaching and learning of French as an integral part of the teaching curriculum, focuses attention on this college where teachers of French are trained for our basic schools”.

The fact though, is that, Ghana is surrounded by francophone countries and will require a radical reforms to position itself to ensure greater mobility among ECOWAS nations to expedite wealth creation.

Prof. Yankah was worried about agitations at the labor front of Colleges of Education in the past weeks in respect of teacher welfare and a strike action declared by the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG).

CETAG has been on strike over welfare issues relating to the payment of Market Premium and Book and Research Allowances to teachers of Colleges of Education.

The Minister said “the teachers action, though may be for a good cause, has adopted a procedure that is unacceptable in labor laws: going on a strike even when negotiations are ongoing”. He urged them to go back to the classroom and assured teachers of Government’s commitment to their welfare and maintained that “dialog between teachers and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commisison is ongoing, and neither have talks broken down”.

On Friday 9th November, 2018, the Minister of State in charge of Tertiary Education with the Minister of Employment and Labour Relations, representatives from the Ministry of Finance, National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE), Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, met executives of CETAG. “Considerable progress has been made and a technical committee has been tasked to within a matter of 10 days, produce negotiated figures and compensation packages that truly befit the status of Colleges of education as tertiary institutions” he said.

The Minister urged striking teachers to return to classrooms since “...naturally, a strike declared whilst negotiations are still ongoing is unfair to Government, and unfair to students, who have reported to school otherwise excited and indeed anxious to experience educational reforms that are going to uplift the standard and quality of basic education, and give a solid foundation to Ghana’s human resource profile”.

The conversion of Teacher Training Colleges into Colleges of Education as satellite campuses of universities, and the introduction of degree programmes at such colleges, categorize them under the tertiary sector. It is in line with this that teachers of such colleges are demanding market premiums and other compensations enjoyed by University lecturers. They declared a strike and have since not returned to the classroom.

Prof. Yankah seized the opportunity to “urge teachers in colleges of education not to undercut ongoing reforms in teacher education, but go back to school to make your students proud. The narrative of the teacher’s salary in heaven has long changed to that of a salary package that is not just here on earth, but also low hanging”.

This particular Government attaches a lot of importance to teachers, and recognizes the unique role of teachers in nation building. He therefore, believes that it would only be fair for teachers to return to the classroom as negotiations continue to go on for amicable resolution.