GNAT ASKED TO EXERCISE RESTRAINT ...On single spine salary structure (PAGE 11)

THE Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Mr Kwadwo Nyamekye-Marfo, has appealed to the leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) to exercise restraint in its dealings with the government on the single spine salary structure.
The government, he noted was only a few months old in office and needed to look into the single spine salary structure well before its implementation.
He gave the assurance that the government was committed to improving the salaries and conditions of service of teachers in the country, while those incentive packages documented in the ruling government’s manifesto for the 2008 elections to motivate teachers, especially those in rural communities, would be implemented.
“The commitment by the government to give maximum attention to the welfare of teachers in the country was made explicit in the 2008 electioneering manifesto of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and therefore it would not renege on those promises,” he assured.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo made the appeal at the 2006-2007 Regional Best Teacher/Worker Awards ceremony held at the GNAT Hall at Bakoniaba in Sunyani, the Brong Ahafo Regional capital.
The delay in the organisation of the awards ceremony, according to the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Education Service (GES), was due to financial constraint.
In all, 52 deserving teachers and workers from the primary, junior and senior high schools, vocational and technical, as well as teacher training college levels in the region were honoured with prizes as fridges and ghetto blasters.
Mr Nyamekye-Marfo called on teachers to continue to give their best while the government took the necessary steps to address their grievances and also urged them to eschew all negative practices towards work such as lateness, absenteeism and drunkenness, since they serve as role models in the communities they teach.
He also commended teachers in the region for their hard work through which some of them had won the national best teacher awards.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Education, Mrs Akua Akubour Debrah, expressed the hope that the awards would inspire and motivate all teachers to put in their maximum efforts to improve the standard of education in the country.
The Regional Secretary of GNAT, Mr Kwaku Asante Nketiah, called on the government to address the “unnecessary deductions on the salaries of teachers by the controller and acountant general’s department”.