Mr Joseph Kweku Adjei, National President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), on Wednesday called on the Ghana Education Service (GES), to "relax" its quota system policy on study leave, to enable teachers who pursued further studies to be readily re-absorbed after completing their courses.
He expressed concern that 567 professional graduate teachers, most of whom were teaching at the basic schools and who completed such courses at the universities this year, had not been re-posted to any school because they had failed to obtain permission before undertaking the courses.
Mr Adjei made the call at the opening of the Central Regional Delegates' Conference of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Cape Coast.
The three-day conference is on the theme; "Teachers Unions' Response to the Challenges of Globalization: Re-positioning the Profession to meet the Challenges of Globalization".
According to the GNAT President, the explanation being given by the GES was that the names of the affected teachers had been deleted from the pay roll as they were considered as having vacated their posts.
He expressed concern about a similar situation which arose last year, and described the situation as "regrettable," since there were a lot of vacancies that needed to be filled, particularly in the basic schools.
Mr Adjei also tasked teachers to exhibit a high sense of professionalism, to help redeem the sinking image of the profession and said the union would work hard to have the end of service benefits improved.
Reverend Professor Emmanuel Adow Obeng, immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Coast (UCC), urged teacher unions in the country not to seek the welfare of their members only, but to sanction those who flouted the code of ethics of the profession as well.
He expressed regret that some leaders of the unions sometimes used their positions to gain political favours, and said that was wrong.
He urged them to endeavour to stay clear of politics, as that could affect their professional ethics.
Touching on the theme of the conference, Rev. Prof. Obeng expressed regret about the lack of effective networking among teacher unions in the country.
He observed that teachers' unions in other parts of the world were networking to enhance their performance, and had in some cases, merged with the resultant positive influence on a wide range of issues affecting their wellbeing.
Rev. Prof. Obeng tasked the three teachers' unions namely GNAT, National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) to meet regularly, work together and find means of enhancing the profession to facilitate turning out quality graduates.
He said the unions could collaborate with the universities to come out with "tailor-cut" courses for their members to upgrade themselves to meet the challenges of globalization, which "had no place for half-baked scholars'.
Mrs Ama Benyiwa-Doe, Central Regional Minister, in a speech read for her, said the union had the responsibility of ensuring that its members upgraded themselves to facilitate quality teaching.