GNAT Strike Ends In Fiasco

An intended sit down strike that the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) asked its one-hundred and eighty thousand members nationwide to observe beginning from last Monday 14th December, 2009 ended up in fiasco as the teachers failed to comply with the directive from the National Executives. Investigations conducted by scouts of the Crystal Clear Lens (CCL) has revealed that teachers in the areas that the paper visited in the Greater Accra Region were at post and were busily performing their duty as was expected of them as teachers. Among the areas that were visited by our scouts include some schools in Tema, Tema Newtown, Ashaiman, Baatsona Nungua and Teshie. Some of the teachers who spoke to the paper on anonymity noted the timing for the strike was wrong. According to some teachers, they had already finished conducting their examinations and all that was left for them to do was to mark their scripts and fill the terminal reports for the pupils. One teacher remarked, GNAT is not serious at all, how can you wait for the term to almost come to end and you tell us we should go on a sit down strike? In related development, the National Labour Commission (NLC) in a letter signed by its Executive Secretary, Mr. Edward Mireku Boadu has directed that the Standing Joint Committee shall negotiate and resolve their differences within two weeks and has accordingly asked all teachers to go back to the classroom to continue with their work while the matter was dealt with. Mr. Samuel Adjei dismissed the notion that the sit down strike had ended in a fiasco following reports from some schools that the teachers were at post discharging their duties. Mr. Adjei remarked, �The strike was not a fiasco, how can you go to some few schools and tell me all the teachers are working? We have membership strength of 180, 000 and so you can�t tell me that�. He disclosed that GNAT has rescinded its decision on the strike action because there was a meeting between them and the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education and that they have been assured that the matter would be resolved by the 28th of this month. �If by 28th December, nothing was heard, you will see what will happen�, the GNAT President charged. The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the GES, Mr. Samuel Parker Allotey has indicated that members of the Ghana National Association of teachers has very legitimate concerns but look forward that the matter was resolved amicably to ensure that it does not have any negative impact on the innocent pupils. It must be noted that the Ghana National Association of Teachers last Friday, 11th December asked all of its members to embark on a sit down strike to back home their grievances for better conditions of serve from the government. According to them, the talks for better conditions of service began as far back as 2006 but government has not been able to finalize the negotiations and that they (GNAT) see the move from government as dilly-dallying with them.