Four major teacher unions are raising reservations about the announcement by the Ghana Education Service (GES) of a new academic calendar for public schools.
According to the teacher unions, the Service failed to engage widely before making the announcement.
“The attention of the Unions in Education has been drawn to a document in the public domain purported to have changed from a trimester to a semester academic calendar by the GES,” the press release by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana (CCT-GH) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) on Monday, January 17 opened.
“Such a major policy change should have attracted a wide consultation and therefore find both the pronouncement and the document offensive and takes exception to them.”
They adduced that the hours they are to work have increased exponentially, much in contrast to the dictates of their collective agreement.
“The Unions in Education sees the decision taken to unilaterally change the school calendar into a semester one as arbitrary and an imposition by the GES on major stakeholders of which the Unions in Education are part,” they said in the joint press release.
“We, therefore, call on the GES to immediately withdraw the policy, pending full consultations with the Unions in Education and other major stakeholders and do serve notice that failure to do so would be resisted fiercely.”
By Emmanuel Kwame Amoh|3news.com|Ghana
