Deputy Majority Leader Alexander Afenyo-Markin has described as unjustified calls for the termination of the appointment of the newly appointed GES Director-General, Dr Eric Nkansah.

He says the teachers who have embarked on the industry action over Dr Nkansah’s dismissal are being unfair to both Dr Nkansah and students at the pre-tertiary level.

“Ambushing the future of young Ghanaians who are supposed to be in school with an unjustified strike. I think it is most unfair to Dr Nkansah to be receiving such attacks,” he added.

He, thus, has passionately appealed to the teachers to call off the strike and resume work.

“I would want to appeal to the union leadership, especially because of the kids, to look again within,” he said.

Meanwhile, an industrial action that commenced on Monday to protest Dr Nkansah’s appointment is ongoing.

This is after negotiations between pre-tertiary teacher unions and the Labour Ministry ended in a stalemate.

Dr Nkansah was appointed Director-General of the GES on Wednesday, October 19, 2022.

His appointment came barely 48 hours after the previous Director-General of the Service, Prof. Opoku-Amankwa was relieved of his duties.

Subsequently, some pre tertiary teacher unions, including the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers-Ghana (CCT-Gh), have called for the appointment to be revoked, over claims that he is unfit to hold that position since he is a banker and not an educationist.

They organised a press conference to declare their discontent over Dr Nkansah’s appointment and subsequently declared an industrial action that was to take effect from Friday, November 4, 2022.

The Labour Ministry, in an attempt to intervene, called for a meeting with the aggrieved teachers. After deliberations, however, they could not reach an agreement. The Unions requested time to consult the grassroot and meet with the Labour Ministry on Monday.

Making their case, the teacher unions argued that the director general’s position was the preserve of educationists and had been occupied by educationists since its creation in 1974 to date, adding that 17 director generals had been appointed to serve at the GES since then, with five of them being professors from academia known to have operated in the education space.

President of NAGRAT, Rev Isaac Owusu, representing the teachers, said the other Director-Generals were all higher officers of the GES even under military regimes, thus, the appointment of a banker instead of an educationist was a manifestation of the lack of confidence in teachers to manage their own affairs and disregard for an established scheme of service and progression within the GES.

"We have been compelled under the current circumstances to publicly communicate to Ghanaians our intention to go on strike, having reached the November 4 deadline we gave the government."

“Consequently, we have decided to embark on a strike from today, Friday, November 4, 2022,” he said.

Additionally, they raised concern about the one-year contract extension given to Deputy Director General, Anthony Boateng, stressing their opposition to the said contract extension.

“We sounded a note of caution that we would vehemently and vigorously resist any attempt to bring him (Boateng) back into the system and that the consequences of any such attempt may be too dire to handle,” he emphasised, and that it finally cautioned that “should the government fail to heed our call, the leadership of the teacher unions would not be able to control the actions or inaction of their members.”

Source: The Independent Ghana