By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Oct. 7, GNA – Mr Abednego Tettey Nuertey, Tema Metropolitan Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has appealed to the organisers of the teachers’ promotion examination to create exams hall in or around Tema.
Mr Nuertey said the over 4,000 GNAT members in Tema Metropolis, Kpone-Katamanso, Ashaiman, and Tema West Municipalities always had to travel to Ada or Accra to write their promotion exams.
Speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Tema on the fringes of the World Teachers’ Day celebration, Mr Nuertey said due to the distance some teachers had had accidents on their way to centres, while others had to go through stress or lodge in hotels ahead of the examination.
He said it was unfair for the University of Cape Coast to only use its College of Distance Education campus at Papafio Hills, and the Accra Training College and Ada Training College as the only centres for the exams while there were big halls in and around Tema for teachers to write their exams.
He, therefore, called on the UC C to liaise with the West African Examination Council and Senior High Schools in Tema to use their halls for the teachers’ promotional examination.
He also revealed that most of its members who retired from active service from January 2022 were yet to receive their tier two pension payment.
Mr Charles A. Ayonab, Tema Metropolitan Secretary of GNAT, on his part said most of the teachers who retired in 2022 were yet to receive their tier two pension payment.
Mr Ayonab indicated that even though deductions towards the tier two had been deducted from their salaries while in active service, the Ghana Education Service and the tier two company kept tossing the pensioners several months after going on retirement.
He said information gathered was that even though the government deducted the contributions, it was yet to transfer the funds to the companies to invest and pay the required lump-sums to beneficiary pensioners.
He, therefore, called on the government to immediately release the funds to the companies for onward payment to the retired teachers as the delay in doing so was having a negative effect on them.
Mr Maxwell Inkoom, Greater Accra Regional GNAT Trustee, said one major challenge facing education currently was indiscipline, saying; “we are now handicapped because of child’s rights issues.”
Mr Inkoom said people associated discipline with canning and always raised child rights issues, making it difficult for teachers to discipline children, as it used to be, either through weeding, scrubbing, and others.
He appealed to parents to instil discipline in their children at home as doing so would help them to be upright no matter where they found themselves.
GNA