GES Redeployment Directive Is Just A Move By Gov’t To Make Teachers Redundant

Director of Operations of Alliance For Accountable Governance (AFAG), Opoku Davies, believes the purpose of the teachers’ redeployment is not just a directive from the Ministry of Finance to place a ban on employing new personnel by the Ghana Education Service (GES) in order to reduce the educational budget, but rather to render some teachers redundant.

Government says the redeployment of teachers across the country has become necessary following the conversion of the four-year Senior High School (SHS) system to three years.

But President of National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Angel Kabonu has revealed that the exercise of redeploying teachers is a way of reducing the state’s high wage bill and has directed its members not to accept any form of redeployment from the GES.

In their estimation, the directive of the GES lacks the appropriate guidelines for effective implementation since the modalities for which these teachers have been released are not known and have not been stated.

“In fact as I speak, I have on my desk about 17 letters issued by heads of schools releasing teachers under what we call open release. The teachers have not been released specifically to any educational institution. The modalities for which those teachers are being released from the schools are not known,” he said.

Speaking to the issue on Okay fm, Opoku Davies posited “I think the government is deliberately using the redeployment to sack some teachers from the teaching field which is why Ghana Education Service has been instructed to redeploy some teachers which they feel are not making any impact in their schools.”

To him, there are no available schools to redeploy the teachers and considers it as an attempt to frustrate the lives of the teachers.

Source: Daniel Adu Darko/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana