Member of Parliament for Tamale North Constituency, Alhassan Suhuyini has blamed Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education for the ongoing strikes at the pre-tertiary levels.
Suhuyini claimed that at the time when the teacher unions threatened strike actions, the sector Minister did not provide good leadership because his posture in those times was one of gross disregard to the opinion of the Unions.
“The initial reaction was ridiculing the concerns that the teachers raised. I heard the Minister himself at a public function make reference to Dr Nkansah and laughed about it and teased the teacher unions that said that he was not a teacher.
“How does a leader behave like that when you are faced with a decision that is opposed by your key stakeholders? That is how the Minister himself reacted to the concerns initially.”
Alhassan Suhuyini, MP
Suhuyini insinuated that if Dr. Adutwum took the concerns of the teacher unions more seriously, the strikes wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
According to the Tamale North Legislator, the Minister of Education should have noted that the concerns of the teacher unions were genuine because, “three teacher unions can’t be wrong about the reasons why they oppose the appointment of Dr Nkansah.”
In any case, the NDC Member of Parliament claimed that Dr. Yaw Adutwum’s reaction was not surprising at all because his reaction was typical of Akufo-Addo’s appointees.
“[Adutwum’s] initial reaction is another problem that we have faced especially with regards to people who work and represent this government.”
Alhassan Suhuyini, MP
GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT Go on Strike
On Friday, November 04, 2022, three teacher unions at the pre-tertiary sector declared indefinite strike actions in protest of the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as new Director-General of Education.
The unions are the Ghana National Association of Teacher (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teacher (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teacher (CCT).
According to the unions, their reservation on the appointment of Dr. Nkansah has nothing to do with his person. They are only calling for his removal because, Dr. Nkansah is a banker and not a professional teacher.
They demanding that Government appoints one of their own that is, someone who is or has been a teacher for many years as Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
Even though the unions are aware that Dr. Nkansah has once taught at Kumasi Technical University (KsTU), their argument is that, Dr. Nkansah’s relatively short time at KsTU does make him qualified to lead GES.
Meanwhile, Government is in talks with the unions to address the issue so the strikes can be called off.
Yesterday, November 07, 2022, Government represented by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the Ministry of Education held a meeting with the unions.
After the meeting, President of Ghana National Association of Teacher (GNAT), Rev. Isaac Owusu said the meeting was fruitful and that deliberations will continue today.
“I can tell you on authority that so far so good we have had a very constructive meeting. The parties have agreed to adjourn and resume tomorrow 2PM to continue with the deliberations. We have not ended the meeting, the agreement here is that the two parties have agreed that we should adjourn and resume tomorrow 2PM.”
Rev. Isaac Owusu, President GNAT
He encouraged all his colleagues to remain calm while boycotting classroom activities until the deliberations are over and the appropriate steps taken.
The Education Ministry’s Response to Strike Threats
Since the appointment of Dr. Nkansah as Acting Director of GES on 19th October, 2022, GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT had consistently expressed their displeasure.
They threatened to resort to strike actions to get Dr. Nkansah’s appointment terminated. However, Government did not show any signs of heeding their demands.
In fact, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Education Ministry, Mr. Kwesi Kwarteng once said “the unions should focus on teacher welfare and not government appointments.”
Meanwhile, the sector head, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum kept defending the appointment of Dr. Nkansah.
On Tuesday, October 25, 2022, Dr. Adutwum officially introduced Dr. Nkansah as the new Acting Director of GES during the opening of the 29th Annual Conference of Directors of Education
Amongst other things, the Minister of Education said on a lighter note that “he [Dr. Nkansah] has taught in segcondary school, Geography – contrary to what you heard.”
Dr. Adutwum’s demeanor as he made this particular statement may be “the initial reaction of ridiculing” Alhassan Suhuyini, MP for Tamale North referred to.
“Now is my distinct honour to officially introduce to you the Acting Director General of Ghana Education Service – Dr. Eric Nkansah. Dr. Eric Nkansah was the Ministry of Education’s lead person for the negotiation of COLA. For everything that we’ve done in labour negotiations, Dr. Nkansah has been the lead person.
“He has taught in secondary school, Geography – contrary to what you heard and like some teachers, he left to go and do some banking. He got bored with banking and went to the university to teach and taught for about 10 years at the Kumasi Technical University.
“When I became the Minister of Education I brought him to the ministry, where he became the Director for Tertiary Education. So for almost two years he has been the Director for Tertiary Education.”
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Minister of Education
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