Dr. Peter Partey Anti, Executive Secretary of IFEST-Ghana, has expressed profound disappointment over the outcome of the meeting between Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum and the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) held on Wednesday, July 24.
According to Dr. Anti, the meeting should have resulted in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlining commitments and timelines to address CETAG’s concerns, which precipitated their ongoing strike.
“I was expecting that the meeting would conclude with an MoU,” Dr. Anti emphasized during an interview on TV3’s Big Issue on Thursday, July 25. “The issues revolve around conditions of service and outstanding allowances. Therefore, relevant parties must sign an MoU with clear timelines so that CETAG can resume their educational activities.”
Meanwhile, Education Minister Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has asserted that the government has made significant strides in addressing the issues raised by CETAG, which prompted their industrial action. Speaking to journalists in Accra on Wednesday, July 24, after engaging with stakeholders, Dr. Adutwum confidently remarked, “We have made great progress, we have made giant strides.”
CETAG initiated strike action following the government’s decision to withhold their July salaries. This decision was in response to the Minister of Education’s directive to Principals and the Controller and Accountant General not to validate teaching staff salaries due to the ongoing strike.
In response, CETAG leadership labelled the directive as illegal and indicated their firm intention to pursue legal action. “Leadership has referred the illegal directive to freeze our July salaries to our lawyers to take the necessary action on it immediately,” CETAG stated in a press release dated July 23.
The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) had instructed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to freeze the salaries of CETAG members, citing the government’s characterization of the strike as illegal. A letter from GTEC to the Controller and Accountant General’s Department directed the freeze of salaries for teaching staff across the Colleges of Education, excluding Principals, for July 2024.
CETAG’s indefinite strike, which began on June 14, 2024, aims to highlight grievances stemming from the government’s delay in implementing the National Labour Commission’s Arbitral Award Orders and agreed-upon service conditions.
“CETAG urges all members to indefinitely withdraw teaching and related services across all 46 public colleges of education until all orders arising from the Compulsory Arbitration Awards and related concerns are fully implemented,” the statement concluded.
The stalemate continues as both parties seek to find common ground amidst the disruption to educational activities across Ghana’s colleges of education.
