Graduate teachers across the country say they are not civil servants and will therefore not close from school at 4:30pm.

According to the National Graduate Teachers Association (NAGRAT), its employer, the Ghana Education Service, has employed subtle ways to “unilaterally extend the instructional hours of teachers”.

It stated in a communiqué issued by its National Council on February 15 that such attempts are without recourse to their collective agreement, hence they will not accept same.

“Teachers are not Civil Servants and therefore cannot close from school at 4:30 pm,” it said.

The Council observed teachers in Ghana are already over-stretched by bloated class size that keeps ballooning due to social interventions by the government.

Such interventions, it said, have overlooked the centrality of teachers in education delivery.

“Several critical factors such as the number of different lessons assigned to be taught each day; participation in research, in co -curricular and extra -curricular activities, in supervising duties and in counseling of pupils and students all make huge demands upon the time of the teacher without being compensated for,” it revealed.

The Council said it is therefore dismayed at the attempts by the GES and some heads of schools to unilaterally extend instructional hours of teachers without recourse to their collective agreement.

It described as “insensitivity and over-exuberance,” such attempts by some heads of schools to arrogate to themselves the right to extend the working time of the teacher.

“Council calls for an immediate stop to the practice and demand that all Directors and Heads of Schools engaged in the practice are called to order,” it said.

It has meanwhile asked all its members to resist any attempts by any head of school to extend their school time illegally.