Takoradi, Sept. 12, GNA - Members of the Western Regional Branch of National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) have began an indefinite strike action to back their demands for the implementation of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed between the association and Government in 2005.

Mr Robin A. Faidoo, Western Regional Chairman of NAGRAT announced this at a press briefing at Takoradi on Tuesday.

He said the action had become necessary because the Ghana Education Service (GES), Ministries of Education, Science and Sports, and Finance and Economic Planning had failed to implement recommendations in the MOU they signed with NAGRAT in 2005.

Mr Faidoo said the MOU was suspended as a result of the intervention of a Parliamentary Select Committee and other stakeholders in education but since then no action had been taken.

He said teachers had been deprived of their holidays with excess workload, transporting sick students to the hospital and other extra curricular activities without receiving the commensurate allowances. Mr Faidoo said at a recent NAGRAT Delegate's Congress at Tamale, it was decided that by September 1, this year, when the recommendations of the MOU which included a review of teachers salaries, were not done they would embark on an indefinite strike action.

He said it was also resolved at the Congress that NAGRAT should be given representation on all committees and panels of the GES and GES Council, and that the Controller and Accountant General's Department should cease the deduction of dues to the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) without the approval of graduate teachers. Mr Faidoo said members of NAGRAT would resume only when their grievances were solved.