Close colleges of education over CETAG strike - Teacher trainees demand
The Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) has called for the immediate closure of the colleges of education for students to go home and prepare financially and psychologically for a refreshed second semester.
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This is as a result of the truncation of the semester following the industrial action embarked upon by the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG).
"The colleges have less than a month to complete the current second semester that began on June 9, 2024”.
"This means that it would be very difficult, if not impossible, to recover the lost contact hours that were caused by this prolonged CETAG strike," the President of the TTAG, Soale Razak, told the Daily Graphic.
He said a recent study conducted by the TTAG had indicated that approximately 80 per cent of teacher trainees had left their respective colleges.
Challenges
Mr Razak added that the strike had brought about numerous challenges, including a complete halt of academic activities across all 46 public colleges of education, leaving teacher trainees in limbo as well as a continuous financial strain on teacher trainees, parents and guardians due to the lack of academic activities in the public colleges of education nationwide.
Mr Razak said as of last Friday, the CETAG strike had been on for about 55 days with trainees not knowing when it would end, adding that ever since the trainees resumed in June there had not been any serious academic work.
“For the past fifty-five (55) days and counting, teacher trainees have been left stranded with no academic activities due to the CETAG strike action which commenced on June 14, 2024,” he emphasised, and added that “all this while the trainees have been on campus”.
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The TTAG president said the association, whose members were bearing the brunt of the industrial action, had been interacting with all the stakeholders, including CETAG, the Ministry of Education, Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, to try and find a solution to the problem but had not been successful.
The parties, he said, after a meeting on July 24, signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the strike to be called off on July 29, 2024 once its implementation started.
However, Mr Razak said it appeared CETAG was waiting for the full completion of the implementation of the MoU by August 30, 2024, before returning to the classrooms.
He wondered what the colleges would be able to do if academic work resumed after August 30, 2024 since the second semester was supposed to end on September 7, 2024.
Extension
He said extending the academic calendar beyond September 7, 2024 would be a disadvantage to the trainees who had already been on the various campuses since June 9, 2024 and so it would be prudent to allow them to go home now to reorganise themselves and prepare to return.
Strike
The leadership of CETAG declared an indefinite strike on June 14, 2024. It charged its members across the various institutions to withdraw teaching and related services indefinitely until their grievances were met.