Teachers' uprising and other matters

By Kofi Akordor
IT was the end of the month and teachers, like all salaried workers, trooped to the banks to withdraw what will keep body and soul together for the following 30 or so days. That time, their expectations were very high because their salaries were not going to be the usual thing but something they had been promised would keep them smiling all the way from the bank to the classrooms and, obviously, to their homes.
As we all do when a back pay or some windfall is on its way, the teachers drew lavish budgets against the latest flat screen TV sets and all those modern electronic gadgets that have become the envy of most workers whose incomes could only afford them dreaming about those items.
Many were those who were ready to confront their merciless landlords, for once, with some cynical smile as they doled out wads of notes to pay for rent arrears and possibly pay in advance to cover rent for a month or two.
Nobody should blame the teachers. They had been assured by their leadership and spokespersons for the government that things were going to change dramatically in a positive way after they (teachers) had been migrated onto the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
Then the unexpected happened. What promised to be a happy pay day became a doomsday. Things did not work out the right way. Salaries, instead of seeing major increases, had been slashed, allowances agreed upon did no reflect in the salaries and, where there had been increases, they were so insignificant that to some it was better they stayed where they were before. The budget has been thrown in disarray. All the expectations had evaporated into thin air. Immediately excitement gave way to exasperation, desperation, frustration and total rejection.
Everybody admitted that serious things had gone wrong. The first buck stopped at the doorstep of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC). Mr George Smith-Graham of the FWSC, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) and the Ghana Education Service (GES), the major employer, quickly downloaded the burden. The leadership of the teachers had been in a rush to join the SSSS and did not allow a test run of the new salaries to allow for the correction of anomalies.
Meanwhile, the leaderships of the various teachers’ groups — the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), which appears to be the most vocal, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Teachers and Educational Workers Union (TEWU) — had their own versions for those who cared to listen.
The SSSS, which was conceived with all good intentions, had run into serious trouble at the crucial hour when it mattered most. The implementation had backfired, putting into jeopardy many months of tireless work.
The government, in anticipation of the backlash, put in place a joint technical committee made up of representatives of NAGRAT, GNAT, TEWU, the GES, the FWSC and the CAGD and tucked it away in the serene environment of Dodowa to deliberate on all the anomalies and come out quickly to solve them.
The teachers, however, would not compromise. All appeals to them to return to the classroom fell on deaf ears. They had suffered for far long and the latest was a slap in the face and so they would not take any excuses short of the right thing being done. At one stage, they saw their leaders as traitors who had sold out to the government. Some even threatened to go the Tunisian or Egyptian way and camp at the Independence Square until all anomalies were rectified and allowances paid.
These allowances include: Professional allowance (15%); Risk (30%); Rent (20%); Transport (10%); Clothing (10%); Stationery (15%); Co-curricular (20%); Marking (25%); Research (15%); Preparation of Lesson notes (5%) and Invigilation (5%).
The more the explanations and appeals, the more resilient the teachers became. Apart from a nation-wide demonstration to press home their case, the teachers threatened to disrupt the 54th Independence anniversary by boycotting the event. Thank God, the celebration went on successfully at the Independence Square.
On Friday, March 11, 2011, when their leaders were locked up in serious negotiations with their employers and government representatives, some teachers were still demonstrating and at one stage came under tear gas from the canisters of the police for going beyond bounds.
Thankfully, some kind of agreement has been reached and the parties have found a common ground on which to stand for future negotiations. On Friday, March 11, 2011, the various representatives on both the teachers and the government sides appended their signatures to a document which we hope will send the teachers back to the classrooms.
Those who signed the document included Mr John Nyoagbe, Deputy General Secretary of GNAT; Mr Stanilaus P. Nabome, Deputy General Secretary of NAGRAT; Mr Peter Lumor, National Chairman of TEWU; Dr Kwabena Duffuor, the Minister of Finance; Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, the Minister of Education; Mr Mahama Ayariga, the Deputy Minister of Education; Mr Smith-Graham, the Chief Executive of the FWSC, and Mr E.T. Mensah, the Minister of Employment and Labour who witnessed the day’s agreement.
A major point in the agreement was the introduction of the 15 per cent teachers retention premium which is an incentive package covering all professional teachers and certain categories of non-teaching staff in the GES who are members of TEWU, with the aim of attracting and retaining teachers in the classroom.
The committee also agreed that the joint technical committee should ensure that all errors detected in the February salaries of teachers were corrected and the right salaries paid at the end of March.
The question is, could we have avoided the one week of hostilities and confrontation? The answer is, it was possible. There is this saying that what is worth doing is worth doing well. All the parties should have exercised patience, instead of raising the stakes so high. We have allowed too much politics into the whole exercise of migrating workers onto the SSSS, thereby diverting attention which should have been devoted to the exercise to ensure that the best comes out of it.
The government, on one hand, was too eager to please workers, while the workers. on the other, with their appetites whetted to astronomical levels were in no mood to wait. The result was what we witnessed over the last two weeks.
There are many more workers’ groups to be migrated onto the SSSS. We hope the FWSC and other stakeholders are gaining experience in this exercise and will do due diligence before coming up with its final products to save the nation unnecessary tension.
fokofi@yahoo.co.uk
kofiakordor.blogspot.com