President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Mr Kwame Alorvi, on Tuesday appealed to the Minister of Education (MOE) to impress upon the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning (MoFEP) to review and pay the appropriate monthly allowances to teachers.

He called on government to demonstrate goodwill towards teachers by increasing their one Ghana cedi monthly allowance, to an appreciable level commensurate to the current economic conditions.

Speaking to the GNA in Accra, Mr Alorvi said the appeal has become necessary because MoFEP has failed to comply with a Ghana Education Service (GES) directive to pay teachers their due.

According to him, a housemaster was paid a monthly allowance of one Ghana cedi, senior housemaster, GHc 1.50 and headmaster, between three to five Ghana cedis but MoFEP has reduced the amount to GHp 30, GHp 70 and one Ghana cedi respectively.

Mr Alorvi said car maintenance allowance of GHc 40 a month has also been reduced to GHc 7 and in schools where more than two teachers own cars, the allowances are not paid due to lack of funds.

He said President Mills’ directive on Monday that the MOE and GES should pay teachers their entitlements could not yield any positive results because the directive was not to increase the allowances of teachers.

“Although teachers appreciate President Mills’ concern, they were expecting that the directive would lead to an increase on their entitlements, “he said.

He expressed hope that negotiations to increase emoluments and other packages for teachers, which begun three years ago and expected to end this month, would yield positive results for teachers.

Mr Alorvi expressed concern about the inability of the GES to engage some newly trained teachers who were interviewed.

He said others applied but were not appointed due to lack of funds to promote them and called for urgent measures to address the issue to motivate teachers to perform better.


Source: GNA