CETAG Grows Wild

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), may soon go to court to push for the closure of the colleges for the rest of this semester.

The association wants to uphold the law governing the colleges, which states that colleges must be closed down and the semester annulled if academic work halts for more than three weeks.

This comes as CETAG enters the third week of its indefinite strike declared over failure to reach an agreement with the government on the payment of their Interim Market Premium as well as Book and Research allowance.

The President of CETAG, Prince Obeng-Himah said to Citi News “[if] we don't find anything happening then we'll have to move to that level and activate that provision so that if the semester has to come to an end then it comes to an end for reps to see how we can move things.”

The Association plans to talk to its lawyers “to see whether we have to get the court to activate them [the law] or enforce them for the purpose of teacher education,” Mr. Oben-Himah said.

He also said this was necessary to uphold the quality of education provided.

“Even though we are fighting for our rights, we need to ensure that quality is safeguarded and guaranteed.”

CETAG in October went on strike after three months of unsuccessful negotiations with the government to have their concerns addressed.

The decision has affected all the 46 public Colleges of Education in the country.

CETAG has defended its indefinite strike saying it has been in negotiations with the government since 2012 when the law was passed to give the colleges full tertiary status.

It has had five engagements with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission since the colleges were upgraded in 2016.

These engagements, according to CETAG, have not yielded any favourable result, and their members continue to be unfairly remunerated.

The Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, said it was shocked by the association’s move to embark on an indefinite strike.