CETAG Strike: Gov’t must be transparent on challenges – Dr. Kingsley Agyemang
The Member of Parliament for Abuakwa South and member of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Education, Dr. Kingsley Agyemang, has criticized the current administration for failing to honor payment commitments to members of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) after previously reaching a solid agreement.
Describing the situation as “scandalous,” Dr. Agyemang called on the government to disclose all financial challenges weighing down the State.
During a phone-in session on Joy News’ PM Express, on Wednesday, November 26, the Abuakwa South MP expressed frustration over promises made earlier this month, that teachers would receive their outstanding allowances, only for those commitments to go unfulfilled.
“This is not the way to go. We can’t disappoint our people like that. It’s not fair, you validated it this November that you are going to pay them, they go to the bank and it is like this; how do you ensure trust? What can they trust again?” he questioned.
The ongoing strike action, which began in on Monday, November 24, has effectively grounded all 46 public Colleges of Education across the country to a halt, leaving about 50,000 teacher trainees without access to lectures, project supervision, and internal examinations.
The Education Committee member explained that the dispute centers on a binding arbitral award issued by the National Labour Commission on May 2, 2023, which said has continuously been ignored by the government ignored. Outstanding payments include All-Year-Round Work Compensationfor additional duties performed in 2022 across 39 colleges, with only Accra College of Education receiving partial payment. Also, significant arrears remain for Book & Research Allowances spanning the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 academic years.
Dr. Agyemang highlighted the broader economic implications of what he labelled as the government’s negligence, noting that the impact extends far beyond the 350,000 teachers affected.
“You have disappointed households on the scale of a simple calculation of how we know the average teacher runs their home. About 10 people are dependent on a teacher, so you are disappointing 3.5 million Ghanaians, roughly 3% of the whole Ghana population,” he stated.
Earlier on Tuesday, Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu met with CETAG leadership to request a two-week temporary suspension of the strike, as the state scrambles to address the issue.
“I have asked them to consider calling off the strike and giving us two weeks to see what the state can do. It goes back to 2022, but we will fix it within the next two weeks,” the Minister stated.
However, Dr. Agyemang suggested that if financial constraints are the real issue, the government should be transparent about its limitations.
“Maybe the government is broke. You just tell his people that they are broke and they can’t pay, to just allow one. It’s as simple as that,” he remarked.
CETAG leadership declined to suspend the strike following the meeting with the Education Minister on Tuesday, assuring that they will consult their National Executive Committee and general membership before communicating their final position to the Ministry within the week.
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