Bear with us, we will pay you soon

General News of Saturday, June 1st, 2019

Source: asempanews.com

2019-06-01

The Ministry of Education attributed the delay in the payment of teachers under the dual track system to the difficulties faced by the Ghana Education Department for data entry.

According to Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, Deputy Minister of Basic and Secondary Education, the ministry is aware of the arrears owed to teachers and is working to resolve them as quickly as possible.

Last week, concerned teachers from the Upper West West region besieged the Ghana Education Service's regional branch to claim their salary.

But Dr. Yaw Adutwum called on all the teachers involved to show restraint as the ministry took steps to remedy the problem.

He said the situation seriously affected the ministry, which feared that some teachers would miss school due to non-payment of their salaries.

"It may have become so difficult for GES to enter the data into the system. It has been a nightmare for us because when teachers are not paid, even if it hurts, it hurts us even more.

"If a teacher does not have money, this person may not have money for transportation and may not show up at school. In the long run, it hurts children and the Department of Education. meetings to ensure that there are as many in the system. We will do everything we can to make sure they are paid. "

About 8,000 teachers recruited by the government to facilitate the implementation of the controversial double-track system under Free SHS policy, have not been paid their salaries five months after their hiring.

The Ghana Education Service, which is in charge of the treatment of newly recruited teachers for entering their biometric data and issuing identity cards of staff members, is dragging its feet in the exercise.

Of the three processes required, new teachers have only completed one, which consists of filling out what they have called IPPD forms. They must still be the subject of a biometric registration and receive their identity card.

According to teachers who form the Association of Newly Recruited Teachers (ANRT), they met twice with the Minister of Education, Mathew Opoku Prempeh, for non-payment of their salaries, but they do not seem to to have hope.