The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has urged members of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) to return to the classrooms, assuring them that their concerns are being addressed.
CETAG members across all 46 colleges of Education in the country have been on strike since June 14, 2024, over the government’s refusal to implement their arbitral award and conditions of service forcing students of the various schools to leave the campuses.
CETAG at a news conference in Kumasi on Monday, July 22 warned that it would resist any illegal attempts to freeze members’ salaries, vowing to intensify its indefinite strike until the arbitral award and negotiated service conditions are implemented.
GTEC subsequently in a statement directed the Controller and Accountant General’s Department to withhold the July 2024 salaries of all teaching staff of CETAG excluding the College Principals in response to the ongoing strike by CETAG members which began in June this year.
GTEC defended its decision explaining that the salary freeze was a logical consequence of CETAG’s failure to validate their presence at work.
Speaking in an interview with Umaru Sanda Amadu on Face to Face on Channel One TV, the Acting Director General of GTEC Prof Ahmed Jinapor Abdulai indicated that “At the end of the day whether the salaries have been stopped or not what we are calling on CETAG to do as a matter of urgency go back to the classroom because your demands are being met.”
He further indicated “In terms of the salary stoppage, I think this is not the first time we’ve been through that. If we have a harmonious environment where all the parties agree that this issue needs to be resolved and resolved amicably and permanently and one of the means of resolving is being in the classroom for us to look at how this whole issue of salary freeze can be resolved.
“I don’t think the minister is going to take an entrenched position to say that he is not going to more or less look at it.”
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