The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the largest teachers’ union in the country, has introduced the GNAT Cancer Foundation (GCF). This new initiative is designed to offer top-tier cancer treatment to teachers and their families, while also fostering cancer awareness and ensuring proper management of funds raised for cancer care.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has commended the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) for including dialogue in its 2024 manifesto for the upcoming general elections.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has urged teachers to remain calm amidst ongoing agitations over delays in finalizing their conditions of service agreements with the government.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has called for an urgent stakeholder engagement to fashion strategies to deal with indiscipline in schools.
It said educational authorities, teachers, parents, civil society organisations and heads of schools must come together to tackle the problem of indiscipline for the collective good of all.
That, it said, was a result of the kind of behaviours exhibited by students nowadays.
"We need to have a stakeholders meeting and have this thing corrected. Otherwise, our future leaders would take us by surprise," the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Tanko Musah, said to the Daily Graphic last Thursday.
His comments follow the stabbing of a final-year student to death at the O'Reilly Senior High School in Accra.
Incident
The victim, a General Arts student, was reportedly engaged in an argument with a schoolmate over whose father was wealthier.
This happened after they had finished writing an examination paper.
The argument degenerated into fisticuffs and Edward Borketey Sackey was stabbed multiple times.
The suspect was identified as Godwin from the Visual Arts class.
He has been arrested by the police and is in custody.
Videos and photos shared on social media showed colleague students in a desperate move rushing Sackey to the hospital. However, he was pronounced dead on arrival.
Condolence
Mr Musah, on behalf of the GNAT, expressed condolences to the bereaved family and the school over the loss of the youngster.
"We are all aware of the unfortunate incident that has happened to us as a people and as a nation regarding the passing of a final-year student at the O'Reilly SHS.
"We want to use this opportunity to express our deepest condolences to the bereaved family," he said.
The GNAT General Secretary said anytime a teacher attempted to correct a student who had done something wrong, some parents came to schools to attack them.
Sometimes, he said, the students organised themselves to attack a teacher who tried to discipline them.
Care
"As for the insults to teachers, it has now become a daily affair, where the student can say whatever he or she likes to the teacher.
"If care is not taken when you put any correctional measures in place or instil any correctional measures and the thing goes wrong, you would be taken on at the national level," he said.
Mr Musah emphasised that the aspect of character moulding "is lost on us, and the earlier we take note or address these things together, the better for all of us."
According to him, today, students came to school with weapons, including knives.
"Today, the confidence level of the student could be likened to those engaged in galamsey. The level at which those engaged in galamsey are doing it with impunity... is where we are now," he said.
He said disciplining students had become difficult, if not impossible, because of the kind of repercussions that would come up.
"What we are saying as an organisation is that we need to come together as stakeholders because the confidence level of the students is the same as those doing the galamsey.
"Some of them can easily charge on you, they can attack you, they can insult you and do whatever they like in the schools and nobody is saying anything about it," he said.
Mr Musah said the character being exhibited by some students was dangerous to society and that it was time something was done about it.
Source: Emmanuel Bonney, https://www.graphic.com.gh
The General Secretary of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Thomas Musah, has called on the government to honour its promises to teacher unions.
Speaking on Joy FM's Midday News on Monday, August 19, Mr. Musah stressed that the government had promised affordable housing for teachers in 2022, yet two years later, the promise remains unfulfilled, yet the promise has been made anew.
According to him, the government needs to revisit this commitment and not make new ones.
"We’ve been here before and I think that we cannot easily progress without looking at what had happened in history. Two years back, we engaged the government and they promised us that they were going to ensure that we get affordable housing.
"When you look at the budget statement, page 105 and paragraph 589 it is there that government will engage the teacher unions specifically NAGRAT to ensure that affordable housing is put in place .. so this is a nice opportunity to give a reminder,” he said.
Mr. Musah also urged the government to expedite action on other promises, such as promoting teachers from the rank of Deputy Director to Director 2 and 1, addressing issues faced by teachers in deprived areas, and delivering on the "laptop per teacher" initiative.
His comments come in response to a recent pledge by Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), who during the unveiling of the party’s 2024 electioneering campaign manifesto, promised to offer incentives for teachers to purchase vehicles with engine capacities of up to 1,800CC.
While Mr. Musah acknowledged the importance of this initiative—noting that teachers had benefited from similar incentives in the past—he stressed the need for the government to fulfill previous promises before making new ones.
"...But as I said, the other ones they have promised and haven’t been delivered, we are asking of it and we want them to speak to those issues for us.”
Additionally, Mr. Musah called for the establishment of a pre-education funding act to ensure sustained financing for public education, pointing out that basic education in Ghana is currently facing significant challenges.
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General Secretary of Ghana National Teacher Association (GNAT) Thomas Musah Tanko has said that the look forward eagerly to their upcoming meeting with the Labor Commission on April 17th.
He said the Teacher unions will use the opportunity to express the need to address longstanding concerns regarding various allowances and financial matters affecting their members.
“We wanted the end of the strike to be immediate because per the ruling of the Labour Commission, we are to return to them on the 17th of April. And we think that will give us the whole time to get the work done,” Tanko stated.
Tanko highlighted several critical concerns of members that remain unresolved. These include, the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) allowance, housing allowance, transport allowance, and other pertinent financial matters.
“We have about ten allowances that we compressed into this particular six (6). Initially, three (3) of them were agreed, the scheme of service and then the issue of the timetable and other related matters. Three (3) items have been addressed, the six (6) outstanding items on the table, that is what we will be looking at,’’ he said on TV3’S Ghana Tonight, on Tuesday, April 2.
Furthermore, Tanko expressed frustration over what they perceive as a lack of progress in addressing these concerns over the years. They pointed out that since the expiration of their collective agreement in 2009, and its subsequent renewal in August 2020, many allowances outlined in the agreement have not been implemented.
“Since 2017, since this government came into office, the only allowance that teachers have had is 1,200. So, for the past 7 years, the only allowance that a teacher has received is an amount of 100 Ghana cedis’’ he said.
He also criticized what they view as bureaucratic hurdles hindering the implementation of agreed-upon allowances, citing instances where efforts to gather data and address teacher welfare were stymied by administrative roadblocks.
In response to these challenges, Tanko reiterated its commitment to negotiating with relevant authorities to secure fair and adequate allowances for its members.
“We sponsored most of these trips, field trips outside to go and check on the teacher living in deprived communities, how best we can gather data and all that,” Tanko explained. “But when it came to the time of the implementation, they brought other concerns that it cannot be done because it is only the Ghana Statistical Service that has the mandate to get it done.”
By Eva Boamah