Teachers call off nationwide strike

Teachers in the Colleges of Education have called off their nationwide strike.

The teachers announced an indefinite strike on Monday, September 12 over salary differences with their colleagues in other tertiary institutions.
The Colleges of Education were given tertiary status in 2004 following the Anamuah-Mensah Committee’s recommendation.

Following that, the teachers have been pushing for the same salary structure with their colleagues in other tertiary institutions.

They claim multiple attempts to get authorities to address their concerns have proved futile.

But the Ministry of Finance on Wednesday, September 21 announced that it has approved for the migration of staff of the Colleges of Education (COE) from the Ghana Education Service (GES) payroll to that of the National Council for Tertiary Education (NCTE) and the payment of the new levels.

A letter signed by the Minister of Finance, Mr Seth Terkper (addressed to the Controller and Accountant-General and copied to all the relevant parties), stated, “Following the attainment of tertiary status by the 37 colleges of education, approval is hereby given for staff of the colleges of education on the Ghana Education Service payroll to be migrated onto the NCTE payroll.”

“Per this approval, salaries, retention premium, critical support allowance and conversion difference are to be paid to eligible staff,” the letter said.
“Please note that the payment of all other allowances are to be made in accordance with the approved rates of the categories two and three allowances,” it added.
The letter made it clear that “not all the existing staff of the COE meet the minimum requirements of the new scheme of service for COE developed by the NCTE”.

“Thus not all staff of the COE are to be migrated onto the Single Spine Grade Structure of the COE. Staff who do not meet the minimum requirements are subsequently to be placed on the GES payroll,” the letter stated.

It added that “All such job holders are to receive conversion difference in line with the principles of the Single Spine Pay Policy (SSPP) in order not to make them worse off. In the interim, retention premium and critical support of 15 per cent paid to the teaching and some selected non-teaching staff of the COE will continue to be paid until government directives on the payment of premiums and any other related allowance are reviewed.”
Mr Joseph Nkyi-Asamoah, the National Chairman of CETAG, has since called on the teachers to return to work in order that “the academic calendar will not be disrupted.”