The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah, says some Senior High Schools (SHSs)
in the country have been hit with food shortages.
He said the schools are mostly found in the Eastern, Ashanti, Northern, and Volta regions.
According to him, the situation, if not remedied, could affect the health of the students in the affected schools. Speaking on Accra-based Citi FM on Tuesday, August 31, 2021, he said making the issue public was not intended to bring anybody down or to make the government unpopular. For him, making the issue public was to court the attention of all key stakeholders, particularly duty bearers, including the President and the sector minister to help address the situation.
"We need to do something to help our children," Mr Musah noted, adding "We need to do something to ensure that these children pass and pass well."
He said how the students are fed is not the best, saying “the conditions under which our children are learning is not the best." For him, the posture taken by some duty bearers that there is not food shortages affecting schools in the country will not help to address the situation, and that the issue needed to be addressed urgently. "We cannot compromise on the health of our students," he said, pointing out that the leadership of GNAT is doing everything possible to ensure that the schools have enough food supplies.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has presented a total of GHS154,000.00 to seven Science-based Colleges of Education in the country.
The gesture from the teacher union is to aid the schools to improve the training of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education in Ghana.
Colleges of Education have relied on government support to equip their institutions to adequately train teachers who will be spearheading the teaching of STEM in basic and second-cycle schools.
This support over the years has been inadequate.
GNAT is hoping the donation will be used to equip these institutions to train more STEM-based teachers.
The beneficiary schools are :
St. John Bosco’s – Navrongo, Upper East Region
Kibi – Kibi, Eastern Region
Bagabaga – Tamale, Northern Region
Wesley – Kumasi, Ashanti Region
St. Francis – Hohoe, Volta Region
Nusrat Jahan Ahmadiyya – Wa, Upper West Region
OLA – Cape Coast, Central Region.
Making the donation, the General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, indicated that each school has been given a sum of GHS22,000.00 to enable them to take care of infrastructure/science equipment, laboratories, and other needs.
He stated that Section 4 of the Colleges of Education Act, 2012, requires the Colleges of Education, to among others, set up well-equipped resource centers where staff, students, and serving teachers will be assisted to acquire skills in making and using teaching and learning materials for effective classroom teaching and develop close relationships with professional teacher organizations for professional development.
Mr. Thomas Musah added that “It is also worthy to note, that Article 3(1g) of the 2018 amended GNAT Constitution enjoins the Association to assist the Colleges of Education.”
“It is within this framework of friendship, commitment to the cause of Education in the Colleges of Education, and in Ghana’s schools in general, and demonstration of our welfare that the Ghana National Association of Teachers is going to the listed Science-based Colleges of Education with a total amount of GHS154,000.00. We hope the donations would be used for their intended purpose, and GNAT looks forward to just that.”
Three pre-tertiary education labour unions have given the government up to the end of September this year to address a number of issues affecting their members as well as teaching and learning in schools. They said anything short of that would cause them to advise themselves.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-GH) said the lack of textbooks, overcrowded classrooms, delay in payment of capitation grant, increase in workload and the non-payment of responsibility allowances were some of the issues.
They further mentioned teacher promotion, refusal to appoint teachers in offices, transfer of teachers in Special schools, signing of performance contract without the involvement of unions as other concerns.
“We the teacher unions are hereby serving notice that if by the close of September 2021 all these issues are not resolved in full by the employer, we will have no option but to advise ourselves in the best interest of our members within the framework of our collective agreement and the applicable laws of Ghana,” the General Secretary of GNAT, Mr Thomas Musah, said on behalf of the unions at a news conference in Accra on Tuesday.
Progress
Mr Musah indicated that in spite of the progress the country had made in improving access to education, there were still challenges inhibiting thousands, adding that the authorities had failed to provide teachers and pupils with modern aids to teaching and learning.
“There are no textbooks, school environment is not conducive for learning, classes are overcrowded, the payment of capitation grant and administrative resources are delayed, among others,” he said.
The poor quality of education, he said, could be seen in the results of students in first cycle schools in the country.
Mr Musah said the hours teachers were required to work per day and per week should be determined by the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the teacher unions as enjoined by the collective agreement.
Workload
Regrettably, he said, the GES had not only increased the workload of teachers, but also failed to compensate the affected teachers.
Again, he said, the slow pace of the GES system in upgrading teachers who financed themselves to acquire degrees and those who had completed their study leave with pay was worrying and demoralising.
“It is pertinent to note that even with the teachers who have been upgraded, they were not paid on the effective or substantive dates they were upgraded. The disturbing issue is that some were given three months arrears, while the majority received nothing,” he emphasised.
Moreover, Mr Musah said, there were teachers who held various positions of responsibility who were entitled to responsibility allowances, but their allowances had been stopped after they were promoted to other ranks.
“Despite several efforts by the teachers and the teacher unions, a greater number of the teachers have not had their allowances restored,” he said.
He mentioned other benefits that were yet to be honoured as car maintenance allowance, rent advance, allowance for teachers in deprived areas and additional duty allowance.
He expressed concern over the transfer of teachers in Special schools, and charged the GES to suspend the action.
He also called on the GES to suspend the signing of performance contracts with heads of institutions until it was discussed with the unions.
General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Thomas Musah has stressed on the need for stakeholders to continuously devise innovative ways of giving access to quality education irrespective of the prevailing circumstances especially in times of emergencies and pandemics.
“Covid-19 has seriously exposed us in so many ways. If Covid had not hit us, some of the things we were doing, we never would have been doing them. Things like Zoom meetings and online engagements. And one critical area is how we have been exposed with regards to access to education. The key thing here is what we can do in terms of emergencies or pandemics particularly when it comes to education.
“…because education cannot wait in times of emergencies as the consequences of a long break in teaching and learning would be dire.”
He further explained: “If you look at the work that the Ghana Statistical Services did in 2020, the analysis show that children who are four years old are over 600,000. Now, if you make the mistake and say let’s wait small and close schools down for about two or three years because there is an emergency or pandemic and so the children should stay home, by the time schools reopen, the children would be about 7 years and that will be the end. You will not get them again. Some of them will be lost to child labour and other areas. And it will be disastrous to have such a huge number of the children being lost”.
The General Secretary was speaking to Connect FM on the sidelines of a three-day hybrid Emergency Remote Teaching training for selected Junior and Senior High school teachers in the Western Region.
In partnership with the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Center for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS), UNESCO through the Korean government is supporting 51 Junior and Senior High School teachers to acquire digital skills in remote teaching to prepare them for future shocks and disruptions to teaching and learning.
Mr. Musah noted that it is imperative that efforts to prepare teachers for future shocks and disruptions to teaching and learning be stepped up.
“… that irrespective of the time, irrespective of the situation, irrespective of the condition or period we find ourselves in, the child should still be able to have access to not just any education but quality education. Because we are getting to a stage where we need to get some kind of arrangement where it will be possible to teach and learn without any disruption no matter what or we risk losing the human resource to shape and guide our development agenda.”
Earlier, Director of CENDLOS Gyamfi Adwumbour encouraged teachers to embrace online teaching and learning to ensure continuity of learning beyond Covid-19 disruptions.
UNESCO Representative to Ghana Abdourahamane Diallo also underscored the need for teachers in Ghana to acquire digital skills to improve learning outcomes thereby contributing to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.
“This training is going to help me a lot especially in integrating ICT in content delivery. This training is not only about Covid but even after Covid, we can actually create sites for our schools. We have been introduced to a site that is free, so schools that do not have funding are privileged to create their own site,” a participant said.
Another participant lamented: “In Ghana data is expensive. This training though very good comes with some challenges. We have to get laptop, good mobile phone and data. So, we plead that when we go back and start implementing what we have been taught government will help in providing data for us to deliver well”.
The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah, has intimated that school rules must be obeyed, therefore the students must follow the laid down rules by the school.
He explained that the rules and regulations of the school are in good shape, thus “The justices of our courts, parliamentarians,… everybody has gone through. So once the system is not broken, why fix it?
“We think the status quo is good in helping children. So our position is that if the rules are not broken, don’t fix it,” he said.
His comment comes on the back of the issues surrounding two first-year Rastafarian students who were rejected by the Authorities of Achimota Senior High School on the account of their dreadlocked hair.
Mr Musah speaking in an interview on Joy News’ AM Show said “school authorities shouldn’t just stand up and grant exemptions to people without any record.”
“Let’s be mindful here, if any child, for any reason should be treated out of the rule, the parents must report it, it is the duty of the parent to bring sane to the attention of the management of the school with evidence and I repeat with evidence and whiles that is done, that can be kept on the person’s record in case anybody comes to challenge the School, the School can produce that particular record as the basis on which the person is treated the way he is treated and not because the person is granted a particular exemption from the rule because of any other reason.
“The reason evidence is provided is because of article 17 of the constitution so that nobody can come and claim why someone has been treated a particular way and the other not,” he added.
According to Mr Musah, GNAT would respect and abide by the Court’s judgement, should the issue go to Court.
“I believe the Supreme Court will look at it, look at the merit and demerit and let us all be mindful of the effect of this particular thing on future generations and the upbringing and training of our children in our schools. Whatever the Supreme Court would say, we will abide by it,” he indicated.
The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has stated that the decision by the Achimota School to maintain its stand in the matter regarding the two Rastafarian students will help strengthen governance systems in school administration in the country.
It said schools would not be run on the whims and caprices of anybody or group of people based on their beliefs and traditions.
The General Secretary of GNAT, Mr Thomas Musah, said that in an interview with the Daily Graphic. He has charged teachers across the country, therefore, to enforce school rules and regulations to the letter since they are in the best interest of students.
Legal document
"School rules and regulations must be enforced to the letter since they are in the best interest of students and smooth running of schools.
"School rules and regulations are legal documents and ought to be respected," he said.
Last Friday, the authorities at the Achimota School refused to admit two students who were posted to the school by the Computer School Placement System (CSSPS) because the school could not admit students in dreadlocks.
Social media has since then been awash with arguments for and against the school’s decision, when the father of one of the students took to Facebook to protest the school's decision.
However, later that evening, the GES directed the school to admit the students.
Last Monday, the Old Achimotan Association (OAA) also known as Akora, and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) disagreed with the GES directive to the school asking it to admit the two Rastafarian students.
The two, therefore, asked the GES to rescind its directive to Achimota School and make sure that students obeyed the school’s rules and regulations.
They contended that even though it was the practice of the GES to issue directives to schools, the current situation was in breach of school governance systems and regulation.
At a meeting with the management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the parents of one of the students in Accra, the headmistress of the school, Mrs Majorie Affenyi, maintained that the students had not been denied admission to the school, rather she said, they were asked to cut their dreadlocks in conformity with the school’s rules.
Attention
Mr Musah said the situation at the Achimota School had come to its attention following the hullabaloo it had generated.
“We are saying that every student must obey school rules and regulations because they are part of the school governance system. Normally, there are exceptions to some of the rules when children come with special conditions.
“There are some who do not eat pepper, salt and many other things. For that we normally look at how best to deal with them and expect full disclosure from parents and guardians in order to manage the conditions of the children very well,” he said.
That, Mr Musah said, meant that the school was being accommodating based upon facts and evidence.
In the case of the Achimota School issue, he said, the father of the student was virtually imposing his belief on his son, adding that “If you believe in Rastafarianism and because your child is under your care you want to impose that on him and for the school to bend its rules, I think that should not be accepted”.
He commended the management of the Achimota School for maintaining its stand.
“In fact, the school authorities deserve commendation and this is something that we must encourage,” he said.
hing training for selected Junior and Senior High school teachers in the Western Region.