Thomas Musa, General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has stated that the association has signed a collective agreement with the government that the appointment of a Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) must always be an educationist hence, the association expects these protocols to be followed.

Expressing the displeasure of the association on the appointment of the new Director-General, Dr. Eric Nkansah, he noted that the first agreement was signed in the year 1974 and that was how the agreement has been ever since, with the latest one being signed in August 2020.

He indicated that the position of Director -General was the highest rank in their affairs, and the association negotiated for the position to be given to an educationist at all times.

“The highest in the scheme of our service is the Director-General and these things were negotiated for. Simply meaning that, in appointing the Director-General, all these protocols need to be followed by appointing educationists, and that has not been done.”
Thomas Musa

Thomas stated that this issue was not to be taken from a moral perspective and the association has eloquently stated its concerns and has had conversations with the government regarding this issue, hoping to emerge victorious depending on the results of their engagements.

“Regardless of the course you do, if you have not gone to the training college before, and you come into the education sector to be a professional, you need to do one year education.”
Thomas Musa

According to him, this one-year education provides the required skills and competencies one needs to become a professional teacher or an educationist, then it goes forward from there.

Director-General Of GES Has No Qualification Attached

On the contrary, Kofi Asare, Executive Director for Africa Eduwatch, mentioned that there is no required qualification attached to the appointment of a new Director-General for the GES according to the law.

Kofi Asare indicated that this information was under section 19 of the pre-tertiary law and he said that according to the Education Regulatory Body’s law, on the section of the National Teaching Council, the head of the National Teaching Council requires some qualification.

“It was the intention of the framers of the law to ascribe qualification to some of the positions, and others the opposite. In this case, I think that the only way out is for the Teacher Unions, whom I call the professionals, to keep engaging, to keep social dialogue spaces open and the issue shouldn’t be as though they are rejecting or renouncing the appointment powers of the President per 195 of the constitution.”
Kofi Asare

He urged the Teachers Union to approach the issue in a manner which provides an opportunity for teachers to emerge as victors. According to him, the Minister of education has been working to resolve this problem, but his efforts have not been quite efficient and as a result, some teacher unions are on a strike.

“The Minister himself is seen as one who has an interest in the matter, because the gentleman was working as his advisor. I think the President will have to intervene at this point.”
Kofi Asare

Mr. Asare suggested that the President will have to discuss this issue with the teachers. The Executive Director for Eduwatch stated that he would have raised this issue when he met with the President last week but he was unaware that the teacher unions were on a strike.