TEACHER UNION CALLS FOR SUSPENSION OF PRE-TERTIARY EDUCATION BILL

Some Teacher Union in the Northern, Savannah and North East regions has joined calls for Parliament to suspend discussions on the Pre-Tertiary Education Bill.

Education analysts suggest that the bill, when passed, will see basic schools, Senior High Schools and Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) being managed by the District Assemblies, Regional Education Directorate and a Director-General independent of the Ghana Education Service.

At a press conference in Tamale, the Teacher Unions made up of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) said the Bill in its current state will be unfavourable to the education sector.

The Northern Regional Chairman for GNAT, Atta Longiya, noted that the Unions are not against the entire bill, but rather sections of it.

“If you look at the Bill, they are ceding the responsibilities of basic education to the district assemblies. We know that the district assemblies in Ghana, especially in these parts of the country, don’t have that capacity at least to manage the basic schools. They are also sending the Senior High Schools to the Regional Coordinating Councils to manage them and we know that will not auger well for the management of Senior High schools.”

“Look at the number of schools. How are they going to manage the payment of teachers’ salaries, infrastructure, and every other thing? So looking at all these, we need to take our time and get the grievances from the various unions so that we will be able to stimulate this Bill which will be passed so that nobody is affected,” he said.

Source: Citifmonline