Members of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) have resumed work following a directive by their leadership to end the mass annual leave they embarked on.
CETAG earlier directed all members to go on a 28-day mandatory leave starting September 1, 2022, as the Association demands full conditions of service and other compensatory packages from the government.
On September 1, all teachers in the 46 public Colleges of Education who are members of CETAG proceeded on leave to return on October 10, 2022.
The Principals of Colleges of Education, Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission expressed concern over their absence as it would endanger teacher trainees in the country.
However, fifteen days after members proceeded on leave, leadership of the Association in a press statement signed by National President, Prince Obeng Himah, asked for all members to return to post.
“The Leadership of the Association has broadly consulted with our legal team, considered the formal appeal by the leadership of the Teacher Trainees Association of Ghana (TTAG) and that of the general public, seen PRINCOF’s resolve to take steps to compensate tutors for engaging in the all-year-round academic work and the goodwill CETAG has enjoyed from the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC),” part of the statement dated September 15, read.
Speaking to the media, the National President of CETAG, Prince Obeng-Himah said Conference of Principals of College of Education (PRINCOF) has assured to compensate its members for forgoing the remaining days of their leave.
“Our members are particularly happy because they have had 10 days rest and also there was that hope in sight when PRINCOF had indicated that what we were asking for was deserving of us, and they were prepared to meet us in the coming days. I have just received a notification from PRINCOF. We are prepared to meet leadership on Thursday to bring an end to this for the modalities and how they will work. It’s heartwarming and our members are happy to be back at work”, he said.
CETAG explained that the decision to abruptly end its leave is meant to “salvage the academic calendar from imminent distortion.”
Members were urged to travel back to their respective campuses within the weekend to be able to resume academic work on Monday.
On his part, President of the Teacher Trainees Association, Jonathan Dzunu, has welcomed the new decision by CETAG and has further entreated Principals of Colleges of Education to resolve the issues with CETAG and avoid a more pronounced action in the future.
“We are happy that they have finally given a second thought to their decision after we appeal to them formally. We thank CETAG very much for calling off the leave and then coming back to the classroom,” he said.