The National Labour Commission (NLC) will engage the the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations and the three teacher unions which are on strike over the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as the new GES Director-General today, November 09, 2022.

The Ministry of Employment and Labour which was in talks with the teacher unions and the Ministry of Education, reported the issue to the NLC for an immediate resolution.

The meeting with the NLC is expected to commence at 10:00AM.

“The Chairman directed that tomorrow’s [Wednesday] meeting should commence at 10:00am instead of 11:00am and we will give the first space to the Ministry of Education and the teacher unions.”
Mr. Ofosu Asamoah, Executive Secretary, NLC

Prior to this new development, the Labour Ministry had held two meetings with the unions which ended in a stalemate. Another meeting was scheduled to happen on Tuesday November 08, 2022, but shortly before the meeting could commence on Tuesday, the Ministry released a statement in which it claimed the unions were unyielding and that all attempts to make them call off the strike had been fultile.

Meanwhile, it was widely reported that the teacher unions boycotted yesterday’s meeting with the Labour and Employment Ministry because the Ministry dragged the ongoing negotiations to the NLC.

However, Deputy Employment and Labour Relations Minister, Bright Wereko Brobbey claimed the unions were aware of the decision to refer the issue to the NLC. According to him, the unions received a copy of the letter sent to the NLC and so they were aware.

“The request made to the Labour Commission was not anything we are doing on the blindside of our union leaders and that is why they are in copy.”
Bright Wereko Brobbey, Dep. Employment Minister

Three Teacher Unions on Strike

On Friday, November 04, 2022, three teacher unions at the pre-tertiary sector commenced an industrial strike action in protest of the appointment of Dr. Eric Nkansah as new Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The unions are the Ghana National Association of Teacher (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teacher (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teacher (CCT).

The unions are calling for the dismissal of Dr. Nkansah and the appointment of someone who has years of experience in teaching.

They claim their reservation on Dr. Nkansah’s appointment has nothing to do with his person. They only want him out because he is a banker and not a professional teacher.

The unions are well aware of the fact that Dr. Nkansah taught at Kumasi Technical University (KsTU) before joining the Ministry of Education. They however argue that Dr. Nkansah’s relatively short time at KsTU does not make him qualified to lead GES.

Government, represented by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations began negotiations with the unions to get them to call off the strike. But as the Ministry of Labour’s statement claimed, the negotiations could not yielded the anticipated results. And that is the reason they have called on the NLC to intervene.

The impact of the strike is that presently, there is no teaching and learning ongoing in almost all public pre-tertiary institutions across the length and breadth of the Country. Pre-tertiary education has simply been put on hold.

Dr. Clement Apaak who is a Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee is not happy with what is going on in the education sector. He can’t fathom why Government is unwilling to rescind its decision on Dr. Nkansah’s appointment to pave way for schooling to continue.

“I cannot see why 400,000 teachers have to leave classroom to the detriment of over 8million students and pupils because of one appointment that has been made which the teacher unions deem to be unacceptable as far as their standards are concerned.”
Clement Apaak, MP