The Ghana Education Service (GES) says it cannot completely dismiss all the reasons why some of its employees, especially, teachers, had come forward to effect changes in their date of birth.

According to the public institution, a good number out of the 800 people who had applied to effect a change in their date of birth were genuine, and therefore, couldn’t have denied them.

The GES on Monday, April 17, 2017, issued a statement placing embargo on the change of date exercise it was carrying out nationwide till further notice.

“Management of the GES is perturbed over the unprecedented number of GES staff requesting for a change in their date of birth resulting in various movements from their stations to the district and regional education offices as well as the GES headquarters.”

“To date, management has received and worked on over 800 applications on change of date of birth alone and this constitutes a waste of quality time of management as it involves a great deal of scrutiny and referrals,” the statement signed by Director Jacob Kor said.

It added: “Hence, management has decided that every member of staff of the GES should adhere strictly to the guidelines as regards the correction of date of birth stipulated for implementation by the GES council. With immediate effect, correction of date of birth for GES staff has been suspended in the district, region and headquarters till further notice”.

However, the Public Relations Officer of GES, Rev. Jonathan Bettey, commenting on the issue in an interview with Kasapa 102.5 FM’s news anchor, Akwasi Nsiah, said some of the applicants had genuine case to effect changes on their date of birth.

For instance, he said some of the applicants who are married wanted to change their maiden name to bear the name of their husbands and with such cases; the GES cannot turn down such request.

A good number of the applicants, he added, have also gone through the proceedings in court to effect changes in their date of birth and therefore, puts the GES in a tight corner to respect the directives of the court.

Rev. Berteh further told Nsiah that some of the applicants who had applied to effect changes in their date of birth have worked with the GES for 20, 25 and 30 years.