By Laudia Sawer
Tema, Nov. 9, GNA – The Tema District Office of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has advised parents to keep their children at home to ensure their safety as the strike of the three teacher unions lingers on.
The unions; GNAT, Coalition of Concerned Teachers, and National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) declared a nationwide strike over the appointment of Dr Eric Nkansah, a banker, as the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The strike is to back their demands for the Government to revoke his appointment, whom they said was a banker and had no teaching background to occupy the position.
Mr Abednego Tettey Nuertey, the Chairman of GNAT, Tema District, told the Ghana News Agency in an interview that instead of releasing children to go to school while the teachers were on strike, parents should rather keep them at home to ensure their safety and use the time profitably.
Currently, the children are left in the hands of the head teachers alone, a situation he described as overwhelming to handle.
Meanwhile, when the Ghana News Agency visited some public schools in the Tema Metropolis, it observed that some of the teachers were not in while those present were not teaching, leaving the children on their own.
Regina Lomikie Teye, a class six pupil of the T.I. Ahmadiyya Basic School, who was with her friends on their way home around 1100 hours, said even though some of their teachers reported to school they left early without teaching.
“We were in school, but we were not taught, so we used the time playing after which we decided to go home and come back tomorrow instead of being here doing nothing,” she said.
At the Oninku Drive Primary and Mante Din Basic schools, all the classrooms were locked with a few of the pupils loitering on the compound, while others were playing football.
Two pupils of the Mante Din School, who gave their names as Priscilla and Vitoria, said they were going home as the head teacher had asked all pupils to leave at 1200 hours.
On a normal day school closed at 1500 hours, but the head teacher was the only one who reported to school and had to close the school for the day due to the absence of the teachers to assist in teaching, they said.
The pupils said they did know why their teachers were on strike but expressed the hope that they would return to the classroom soon for teaching to resume.
The situation at the Padmore Street Basic School was quite different as the pupils were seen taking their lunch through the ‘School Feeding’ programme with some teachers present at the time the GNA visited.
GNA