<<Print>>

The Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana has declared an indefinite, effective yesterday.

The strike is a protest against the failure of government to migrate the lecturers to a tertiary status which would reflect an increase in their remunerations.

National Secretary of CETAG, Prince Obeng-Himah, said on Joy FM that even though Colleges of Education are classified as tertiary institutions, the rank of the lecturers is yet to reflect this change in status.

He maintained that they were prepared to stay away from their duties till such a time when the government would do what was required.

“We are going on strike because government and our employers have reneged on their promise to do what is expected of them regarding Colleges of Education Act which says that when you are tutor and you operating in a tertiary dispensation your rank should change,” he said.

CETAG’s action will see the suspension of teaching, tutorial lessons for students, orientation exercise for students and any other activity tutors are supposed to engage in on the campuses.

Deputy Minister of Education in-charge of Tertiary Education, Samuel Ablakwa, had said in March that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission would be migrating CETAG members by April to a tertiary status with different range of salary.

He said the Education Ministry was collaborating with the National Council for Tertiary Education to improve the general conditions of staff of the Colleges of Education.

But five months after Mr Ablakwa made the comment, CETAG members have still not been migrated.

Mr Obeng-Himah said they had tried on countless occasions to engage government but all to no avail.

“We think that if they have not been able to do it then they are not showing any strong commitments,” he said, adding they were not being treated fairly.

He added: “We should be on new rank now, that should commiserate with the new job that we are doing. In fact, all the meetings we’ve had not even the two deputy ministers have show up and our people feel that we can no longer suffer from this identity crisis.”