About fifty thousand teachers are withdrawing their services from today to demand better conditions of service.
The teachers who are members of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers are accusing President Mahama of reneging on a promise to resolve their grievances.
The group is striking over the failure of government to pay incremental credit arrears, capitation grant, car maintenance allowance and stalled negotiations for category two and three allowances.
Communications Director for the Coalition Ali King Awudu said the utility tariff hikes have also made life unbearable for the teachers.
“There are so many issues affecting teachers, issues that led us to embark on strike actions earlier this year. If you could remember, in March teachers embarked on a strike and we were called to the flagstaff house where the president himself pleaded with us to return to the classroom”.
Ali Awudu who said the president should have been true to his words adding that it is about time teachers were taken seriously.
“He promised he was going to personally ensure we have better working conditions. Several months past and nothing has been done… We wonder what the government uses money for”.
Meanwhile, the Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry Paul Krampah has described the strike as illegal.
“This group should have met with the Ministry of Education before taking such a stance. How could they have taken such a stance without consulting the mother organization GNAT? For them to just go on air and declare a strike action, it is illegal.”
“It is GNAT that has the mandate to negotiate for all the teachers in this country, so if they have issues, I believe the best thing for them to do is to get GNAT to address such issues for them”.
Mr. Krampah says the coalition has no right to hold the president to his words.
“CCT was not at the president in March when he met the unions in the education sector. It was GNAT and NAGRAT”.
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