The Unions in Education made up of GNAT, NAGRAT, TEWU and CCT-GH have described as offensive attempts by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to unilaterally change the academic calendar for basic and secondary schools from trimester to semester.
According to Unions, at no point were they consulted on such a major policy decision and argued this move should have attracted a wide consultation.
They listed the major issues emanating from the unilateral decision by the GES as follows:
1) The hours workers in Education require to work per day and per week have been a bother to Unions especially when instructional and working hours have been increased unilaterally without discussion and negotiations especially with the Unions in Education.
2) Per our Collective Agreement with regards to our working Conditions, major policies such as this should come for discussion and negotiation.
3) As Educators and speaking from a professional point of view, thorough discussion will bring to the fore the effects of a long school calendar on both teaching and learning and also on the health of both workers and learners.
4) The Unions in Education sees the decision taken to unilaterally change the school calendar into a semester one as arbitrary as an imposition by the GES on major stakeholders of which the Unions in Education are part.
The Unions, therefore, called on the GES to immediately withdraw the policy pending full consultations with all major stakeholders and warned failure to do so and they will fiercely resist the attempt.
Source: Mypublisher24.com