Former President John Dramani Mahama, who is seeking another term in office, aims to enhance the country’s education sector and address issues affecting Ghana. One of his primary focuses is addressing the concerns of teachers, particularly those related to allowances for teachers in deprived areas.
The three major teacher unions recently submitted a drafted proposal highlighting this issue. Although this allowance has been included in various collective agreements between teachers and their employers, it has not been paid.
In recent agreements between teachers and the government, the provision for this allowance was reiterated. However, the implementation details are still pending, and it remains uncertain whether these will be actualized.
John Mahama, the NDC Presidential Candidate, has pledged to provide a 20% allowance incentive to teachers who accept postings in deprived areas. This commitment aims to resolve one of the key factors behind the teachers’ strike.
Currently, in some schools, a single teacher is responsible for teaching all students. To address this, the government has initiated a special recruitment drive to hire local teachers for specific areas, such as the Ghana Education Service (GES) recruiting locals to teach in Pusiga. GES grants special arrangement to recruit indigenous teachers in Pusiga
Despite these efforts, many teachers who initially agree to postings in needed areas often request transfers due to the challenging conditions.
Mahama’s promise specifically includes paying teachers who agree to serve in rural schools an additional 20% of their basic salary. This incentive is designed to encourage more teachers to accept and remain in postings in rural schools, thereby improving education quality in these areas.
Breakdown of Teachers negotiations ( New Drafted Collective Agreement) and the benefits you may have not understood.
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The Electoral Commission’s decision not to allow agents of political parties to observe the ongoing voter transfer exercise points to only one reason— the EC’s avowed determination to aid the ruling NPP in stealing the outcome of the 2024 elections.
But as I have continued to repeat, and did the past weekend in Tongo, this collusion between the EC and the NPP will not work. They will fail!
I am not surprised that the NPP and the EC quickly reversed a collective decision taken at an IPAC meeting last week to have political party agents present at the district offices for the transfer exercise.
The NPP knows and internally admits that it will lose the 2024 presidential elections. We also know that, as a last resort, it seeks to deploy gerrymandering during this voter transfer period to improve its chances in the parliamentary elections in the erroneous belief that it may rely on that to affect its presidential votes.
Again, they will fail because that strategy will not work.
We have in our possession a long list of constituencies in the Ashanti and Eastern Regions and selected places in Greater Accra and other regions where the NPP is seeking to transfer thousands of voters from their strongholds to offset the NDC’s gains in constituencies we control.
Ghanaians have already decided to vote Akufo-Addo and Bawumia out because of the unprecedented hardships they are faced with due to their economic mismanagement and deep-seated corruption.
I am certain that no amount of collusion between the Electoral Commission and the NPP can rescue the NPP on December 07, 2024.
We have instructed our party at all levels to continue to be present and observe the transfer process.
I challenge the EC leadership to live up to its expected mandate and stop working in the interest of the ruling party.