The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has reacted to Ghana Education Service’s (GES) statement directing teachers to pay 10% of their salaries as rent for occupying government bungalows.
On Sunday, March 13, GES in a statement signed by the Western Region Director of Education, Felicia Agyeibea Okai directed teachers to pay ten percent of their basic salaries as rent for occupying government schools and bungalows.
The directive which was in furtherance to a Ministry of Finance circular in 2006 was to take effect from March 1, 2022 .
But the General Secretary of GNAT, Musah Tanko, believes the directive is against the collective bargaining agreement which says that teachers are to be provided with residential facilities to enable them perform their triple function of teaching, parenting and night-watching.
He said the directive from GES is unlawful and an affront on the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) signed somewhere in 2020.
“If our collective [bargaining] agreement is saying that we are to be provided with residential facilities to enable us perform that triple function [of teaching, parenting and night-watching], we find it disturbing, unfortunate and disheartening that a regional director can ask that.
“We want to let her know that the regional director has sinned against the collective agreement.
“I believe the Director General will call the regional director to order”, he told TV3‘s Daniel Opoku in an interview on Tuesday, March 15, 2022…
