The Ghana Education Service (GES) has revealed that salaries are validated by the Service before payments are made to teachers at the end of every month.

Expressing concern over claims of wanton deletion of names of teachers from its payroll by the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), GES in a statement signed by the Head of the Public Relations unit, Cassandra Twum Ampofo, indicated that inherent in the payroll system, “is the option to query any name or amount that has been indicated on the payroll to be paid for that particular month”.

“As part of salary administration of the public service, salaries are validated every month before they are paid. The system involves validators confirming names of staff and amount due them”.
GES

GES’s comments follow NAGRAT’s assertions made during its press conference held on February 17, 2022, to highlight some challenges facing the first and second cycle institutions in the country. Key among its concerns were issues bordering on the lack of primary teaching and learning materials such as textbooks, chalks, the deletion of teachers’ salaries from the payroll, delay in payment of capitation grant and mode of lesson notes preparation.

GES expressed that in instances where strange names have appeared on the payroll and generally where there is a stated reason why a staff should not be paid for that particular month but such a staff is programmed to be paid, “the Validator should indicate that the person should not be paid or should be paid but not with the amount indicated”.

GES noted that it recently received a complaint from the Techers Union, “including NAGRAT” that some of the validators were abusing the system by stopping salaries of some staff on personal reasons instead of “official reasons”. The statement intimated that the “consensus” at the discussion on the matter was that management of GES should issue guidelines on how stoppage of salaries of staff must be handled as a way of dealing with such abuses.

“The crux of the guidelines is that where there is a justifiable official reason why a particular salary should be stopped, the validator should immediately inform the Cost Centre Manager of the development and the reason for that”.
GES

Shortages of chalk in schools

Addressing the issue of lack of chalk and other teaching and learning materials, the Service explained that processes for procuring and supplying chalk to various schools are far advanced. According to the GES, some urgent supplies have been made to schools in the Western, Western North and Eastern Regions.

“All other Regions which need chalk will be supplied. It is also important to stress that there are other regions where we have unused stocks of chalk and some are being moved to areas which need some urgently”.
GES

The Service also stated that at a discussion with the Teacher Unions, it was agreed that the preparation of lesson notes should be an agreement between the teacher and his or her supervisor. The Service emphasized that for any valid reasons where lesson notes cannot be prepared electronically, both teacher and supervisor can agree to prepare the notes manually.

“Thus, where both teacher and the supervisor agree that it [lesson notes] should be prepared and submitted electronically, it should be allowed. Where it cannot be transmitted electronically, a print-out of the typed lesson notes should be submitted for vetting and approval”.
GES

Following this, management of the Ghana Education Service has indicated that it will hold a meeting with leaders of the various Teacher Unions to discuss any outstanding issues and concerns.