Gov't has failed to properly handle teacher unions strike -Peter Nortsu

The Ranking Member on Parliament Education Committee, Peter Nortsu has stated that government has failed in handling the nationwide strike by teachers across the country.

According to him, government did not handle the issue of legacy arrears of teachers well hence resulted in a nationwide strike.

Three teacher Unions today, December 9, 2019, laid down their tools to begin a nationwide strike over the nonpayment of their legacy arrears.

The nationwide strike which begun today has affected academics of students which has also stalled the end of term examinations in schools.

Checks by PrimeNewsGhana at an affected public school revealed that teachers were in school but refused to join the pupils in the classroom. Some students indicated their teachers communicated to them that their end of term exams will not come off because of the strike.

READ ALSO:Teacher Unions begin nationwide strike today 

Commenting on the development on Starr FM, Mr Nortsu stated that the Ministry of Education has not handled the situation appropriately

''The situation is where the minister said they have finished paying teachers arrears and the teacher unions are saying no, its not true. So that means the employer hasn't handled the issue well. They did not cross-check their documents or information properly before coming out to say they have concluded payment. So that means if the teacher unions have not gone back and their members telling them that they still remain unpaid, then they wouldn't have known that there were still some monies to be paid to them. So the ministry hasn't handled the matter very well''.

READ ALSO:End of term exams stalled as teachers begin nationwide strike

He also stated that the Education Committee will meet with the minister hopefully tomorrow to address the nationwide strike by teacher unions

''The issue has just come to our attention and as a committee, we have not been able to meet the minister over it yet. When issues of this nature arrive at times we wait for the minister to come and tell us the situation before we come in.

''Last week and this week we have been looking at the sector budget critically and today we laid reports. Tomorrow we will continue with other discussions so the minister will definitely be around tomorrow and it will be an opportunity for us to meet him to address the situation to know what actually his ministry is doing about these arrears.

''So let's meet them tomorrow to listen to their side to see if they will still say they don't owe any teacher or say they owe them then based on that we will have a case to make''.

However, the Education Minister, Mathew Opoku Prempeh last week stated that no teacher has any course to claim arrears in salaries and allowances under the Nana Akufo-Addo presidency.

Dr Opoku Prempeh pointed out that :“between 2017 and now, we owe no teacher an allowance or salary arrears. In fact the 2012 – 2016 arrears, we have paid over two thirds to deserving teachers.”