We won’t call off strike – POTAG

• Posted on June 3, 2014June 3, 2014
• by Nana Kwesi Coomson
• Comment

The Polytechnic Teachers Association (POTAG) is refusing to call off its strike despite the partial closure of some polytechnics in the country.

The authorities at the Kumasi Polytechnic have asked first and second year students to go home due to the ongoing strike which is in its second week.

Per the laws establishing polytechnics in Ghana, the schools have to be shut down when students remain idle for 21 days.

Some students especially, the final year students have been appealing to their lecturers to return to enable them complete school successfully.

They have also appealed to the Education Ministry and the government to as a matter of urgency; address the concerns of the lecturers.

But the situation is persisting and there seems to be no end in sight.

He attributed their entrenched position on the matter to the absence of commitment on the part of government to resolve their issues.

“If government is committed to our welfare and our concern, we are also stakeholders and so we will reconsider our decision,” he said.

Government has scrapped the book and research allowances which were given to lecturers of tertiary institutions in Ghana.

It is consequently setting up a National and Innovation Research Fund to aid teaching and learning.

But university and polytechnic lecturers have kicked against the decision.

According to Mr. Dugrah, the decision is unfair and discriminatory “because there is no national fund in Ghana here that you [government] has gone to that sector to freeze their allowances to set up that fund but for teachers, government is doing that.”

By: Efua Idan Osam