The Upper West Regional Council of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has warned that it would not allow any group of teachers or faceless personalities to destroy the structures of the Association.
In a statement read at a news conference at Wa, on Tuesday, the Regional Council said GNAT did not have any branch called Concerned GNAT members.
The Council therefore described the Coalition of Concerned GNAT and NAGRAT members as “an alien group with diabolical motives, aimed
at destroying GNAT through the use of unconventional unconstitutional methods such as destructive demonstrations”.
“What the group is calling for is a calculated attempt to weaken the GNAT as an organization and to destroy its time tested structures and procedures”, it stated.
Some teachers, who go by the name, Coalition of Concerned GNAT and NAGRAT members have been agitating for the removal of GNAT Executives from office, in what they see as the Association’s
inability to negotiate for a better placement for them in the Single Spine Salary Structure (SSSS).
They are also calling for the GNAT constitution to be amended to make the term of office of appointed staff of the organization limited to a two- term period of four years.
The Regional Chairman of the Association, Mr Sebastian Sorinye, who addressed the conference, advised all GNAT members to distance themselves from the Coalition.
He said teachers in the region had firm confidence in the leadership of GNAT because it had not wavered from its mandate.
There was also no need for any emergency delegates’ conference to amend the constitution, as demanded by the aggrieved teachers, because
the provisions were still very relevant and even more so as it was reviewed in 2006 and in 2010, he added.
“We would like our members to get involved in the associations’ activities so that they would understand its operations and contribute
their quota towards its improvement”.
He regretted for the errors that occurred during the migration of the GES staff into the SSSS, resulting in some teachers getting lower
salaries and others receiving nothing in February this year and pointed out that, the errors could not be used to measure the competence of GNAT leadership.
Mr Sorinye advised the agitating teachers to target their demonstrations at the Management of the Ghana Education Service and the Controller and Accountant- General’s Department, who were
responsible for the processing of their salaries.