General News of Tuesday, 17 October 2006

Source: GNA

Parents call for early resolution of teachers strike

Accra, Oct 17, GNA - The Coalition of Parent Teacher Associations (PTA) Chairmen in the Greater Accra Region has appealed to the Government to expedite action on the resolution of the impasse between it and teachers.

A statement signed by Mr Alexander Yaw Danso, Acting Chairman of the Coalition, with nine others representing different schools in the Region, also appealed to teachers on strike to reconsider their position for the sake of the children.

The Coalition said it has "observed with grave concern the strike action by teachers, which has affected teaching, supervision and learning activities in the schools since the resumption of the academic year, 2006/2007.

It said parents appreciated the hard work teachers were doing in the classroom and also recognized the effort the Government was making in solving the issue.

The Coalition said it had met with the Minister of Education, the Acting Director General of Education Service on two different occasions and had preliminary meeting with National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) Executive in connection with the strike action by teachers.

The Coalition said as parents their concerns were on the fact that final year Senior Secondary School students were going to write the West Africa Secondary School Certificate Examination together with their counterparts in West Africa.

It said student in other West Africa countries were receiving continuous tuitions in preparation for their examination and the fact that the examination time was fixed and would not be changed to accommodate the losses the children were incurring, as a result of the strike action, there was the need for the early solution of the problem. The parents pledged their continuous support for the welfare of teachers.