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Teachers suspend nationwide strike

Teachers in Ghana have officially suspended their intended strike which was scheduled for February 29, 2016 until validation of their claims and documents are completed.

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The teacher unions, including the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) made this known at a news conference on Tuesday.

The General Secretary of  the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), David Ofori Acheampong, said even though they are yet to receive full payment of their salary arrears from government, they will hold on to the strike following the validation process that has begun by the Controller and Account General’s Department, CAGD and the Audit Department.

"We have taken this course of action because we want our members who have been victims of this policy to have their forms validated and their salary arrears paid.

"We therefore call on our members to remain calm and continue with our core mandate. We also entreat all District Directors of Education to make sure that all such application forms in their custody are forwarded to the Ghana Education Service Headquarters for onward submission to the validators immediately," the General Secretary of GNAT added.

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The validation of documents is currently ongoing to pave way for the teachers to be paid their arrears.

The Auditor General’s Department has meanwhile rejected about 6,000 documents submitted by teachers for the validation and processing of their salary arrears after the said documents were found to be duplicates.

Vice President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Carbonu has told Pulse.com.gh that the situation should be blamed on theIntegrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) system who worked on those documents.

"Obviously this process will not end without any blemish. Definitely there will be some few issues that may not be palatable to anybody. But that should not punish majority of the people who are being selected for the process," he added.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Minister of Education in charge of Tertiary Samuel Okudjeto Ablakwa assured the teachers that government will not relent in its commitment to the process of validation in making sure that the arrears are settled.

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Teachers across the country earlier this year served notice of a strike on February 29, 2016 if government failed to pay them their outstanding arrears by the end of February.

Government had subsequently met the various teacher unions on two different occasions to try and reach an agreement for the teachers to rescind their strike decision.

However, government on the third meeting with the teacher unions on Wednesday ordered the release of an amount of GHS 1,579,078.20 to settle 2012 salary arrears of teachers across the country.

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A communiqué signed by the various stakeholders at the meeting said arrears for 2013 and 2014 will, however, not be paid, until authorities validate some payment processes which will begin on Thursday.

The validation of documents is expected to be completed within the next 15 days to pave way for the teachers to be paid their arrears.

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