Please return to the classrooms – PTA begs teachers
The National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) has made a passionate appeal to teacher groups who have embarked on strike to rescind their decision.
All public pre-tertiary teachers across the country on Monday abandoned their classrooms to protest non-payment of what they call legacy arrears.
Three teacher unions- the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the National Association of Graduate Teachers and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers say the Ghana Education Service has failed to process their salary arrears from 2012 to 2015.
They say they will only return to the classrooms if government does the needful of paying what they are due.
But the PTA is appealing to the teachers to return to work.
“We’re on our knees pleading with the teachers to rescind their decision and go back to teach our children. We understand they also need to be paid but they should consider the children.
“The strike is affecting all of us – mentally, emotionally and even physically’, President of the national PTA, Mr Alexander Danso said in an interview with Accra-based Starr.
“Please consider the safety of our children. Imagine your child leaves home for school and there is no teacher in the school to ensure their safety. Someone can just kidnap the kids. People take advantage of such situations to commit crime. So we’re pleading with the teachers to return to the classrooms” he said.
Keep your wards at home
The National President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Ms Phillipa Larsen, asked parents to keep their wards at home as their strike action enters day two.
According to her, teachers will not be in school to teach hence there is no need to send the kids to school.
“Don’t send your children to school because the teachers will not be in school so it’s better they keep their children at home?” she said on Starr FM.
The industrial action by the teachers has had a huge impact on academic work as pupils are expected to begin their end of term exams this week.
Meanwhile, some students have also appealed to their teachers to return to the classrooms.