By Jesse Ampah Owusu
Accra, April 19, GNA – Mr Mark Dankyira Korankye, General Secretary of the Teachers and Educational Workers’ Union (TEWU) has expressed worry about the decline in non-teaching staff employment at the country’s Senior High Schools (SHS).
He said their counterparts, the teaching staff, were being employed regularly, and they, the non-teaching staff, were overlooked, resulting in the few of them being swamped and overburdened in schools.
Thus, more non-teaching staff must be hired to accommodate the growing number of students in the Free SHS programme.
Mr Korankye said this during the Union’s 13th Quadrennial National Delegates Conference held at the Pentecost Convention Centre in Gomoa Fetteh, Central Region.
The event, held on the theme “Fostering Partnership for Equitable Educational Delivery in Ghana: The Role of TEWU” will be climaxed with the elections of new national executives to lead the Union.
Mr Korankye said the theme highlighted the need for a synergy between the teaching and non-teaching staff, where each role was clearly defined, valued and leveraged to improve the quality of education for every Ghanaian child.
He said the non-teaching staff played an important part in the development of education by creating an enabling and conducive environment for teaching and learning in schools.
According to him, the contributions of non-teaching staff were often overlooked, but were critical for maintaining educational institutions by ensuring that educators and students focused on the work of teaching and learning in a supportive and well-maintained atmosphere.
Mr Korankye called for the provision of a safe and conducive working environment for the non-teaching staff in schools, especially the kitchen staff, saying, some of them worked under perilous conditions which had a toll on their health and general wellbeing.
“Conducive environment for our kitchen staff is of much concern to us. In this modern day and age, most of our kitchen staff still use firewood with its attendant smoke to cook for our students.They are developing cancers and dying by the day,” he said.
Mr Korankye urged the Government to promptly pay their pension funds, as well as address their professional development allowances and welfare conditions.
Dr Christian Addai-Poku, President of the National Teaching Council, who represented the Minister of Education, said negotiations had commenced to ensure improved working conditions, and access to training and capacity-building opportunities for teachers and non-teaching staff.
“Government will continue to valorise education support staff and leverage your collective expertise and resources to amplify our collective efforts toward achieving educational equity in Ghana.”
“By working together in a spirit of partnership and mutual respect, we can overcome challenges, seize opportunities, and build a brighter future for all Ghanaian children and educational workers,” he added.
GNA