The controversy over embattled Director-General (DG) of Ghana Education Service (GES), Dr Eric Nkansah, continues to deepen as four teacher unions threaten to go on strike on November 4, 2022.
Addressing a press conference, the President of Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana, King Ali Awudu, told the media that stakeholders in education namely GNAT, NAGRAT, CCT and TEWU are still not happy about Dr Eric Nkansah’s appointment and are not ready to work with him.
According to the teacher unions, failure of the President to revoke the appointment will lead to serious industrial action on November 4, 2022.
“Brouhaha about the dismissal of the DG of GES Prof Opoku Amankwa and other issues affecting the education service that we were dealing with Prof Opoku Amankwa have come to a halt. We will like to say that the recent dismissal and the subsequent appointment of the new DG of the GES is sad.
“It is sad in the sense that the argument is being made to make it appear that there’s nobody in the education space who has the set of skills needed and capable enough to be appointed as DG of GES. We are told that the Minister for Education informed the presidency that the set of skills of the just dismissed DG of GES is no longer required. It beats one’s imagination how the skills of an educationist are not needed in the management of education but that of a banker is? Mr Awudu lamented.
CCT-Ghana described happenings at the GES as very unfortunate.
The group bemoaned why the minister is trying to turn the GES into that kind of administration.
Mr Awudu opined: “Let’s make it clear, against what the minister is saying that Dr Eric Nkansah has taught in a primary school before and he has also taught geography in a certain SHS before, the schools we don’t even know.
“But it’s unfortunate that the Minister of Education who himself has done education does not know that the mere fact that someone has taught in a classroom before does not mean that particular person has done education, the fact that somebody has taught in a primary school and the SHS doesn’t make the person a professional and doesn’t mean the person has done education, so the Minister should come again and stop throwing dust in the eyes of the people.”
According to the teacher unions, directors both at the District and Regional levels are unhappy with Dr Nkansah, the unions are also not happy and they are calling for his immediate removal.
“If sanity and peace is to prevail at the industrial level in the GES, we do not want to have industrial disputes just because of the presence of Dr Nkansah because he doesn’t even deserve that attention in the first place.
“We’re asking the minister to advise the presidency that a wrong has been made for it to be corrected. We are saying that if by the end of next week Friday Dr Eric Nkansah continues to be in office as the DG of GES, there will be an industrial unrest within the GES.”
Meanwhile, the teacher unions are lamenting about the halt of progress after the sacking of Professor Akwasi Opoku Amankwaa.
Expressing dissatisfaction on what has been halted, they said: “Moving forward, there were some issues that we were dealing with Prof Kwasi Opoku Amankwa and all of a sudden they have come to a halt. Some of the issues that we were talking about with Prof Opoku Amankwa are the delay of the laptop distribution, upgrading of teachers, teachers in deprived communities, lower ranks promotion and CPD points accumulation.
“On one Monday, we met DG of GEs on all issues and we started looking at how to solve them. For example, the issues of teachers at deprived communities, their final report was supposed to be presented to us on a Friday.
“The Monday that we met the DG, the Friday of that same week the committee set up by the union was supposed to present their final report on the deprived communities so we can forward it to the presidency and then to cabinet for it to be implemented. So that teachers in the deprived communities can get twenty percent of their base pay to make them happy to work in the rural areas. All these thing have come to a halt,” CCT-Ghana President revealed.
The aggrieved teacher unions are disappointed over how things unfolded prior to the sacking and subsequent appointment of new DG.
“The Monday that we met the DG and we were talking about this delay of laptops, upgrading, teachers in deprived communities, lower rank promotion, CPD point accumulation, the next day Tuesday, it was in the news that the DG has been sacked making our scheduled meeting with him, the Friday off the same week useless and valueless so we could not hold that meeting and we are not ready to hold any meeting with Dr Nkansah because we do not recognize him as our DG. He will not call us into any form of meeting for us to attend, we will not mention it anywhere that he’s our DG and the Minister for Education should stop throwing dust into people’s eyes.
“We all have seen the CV of Dr Eric Nkansah and there’s nothing in his CV that indicated that he has read education, not diploma in education, not post graduate diploma in education, not bachelor of education, not master of education, not PHD in education.
“So you cannot sack someone who has a PHD in education and go and bring someone who has next to nothing of education and ask the person to come and manage educational affairs. That we will not agree,” the teacher unions concluded.