Regional News of Wednesday, 15 October 2003

Source: GNA

Teachers threaten action for non-mechanisation of salaries

New Edubiase (Ash), Oct 15, GNA- Teachers in the Adansi East District, whose salaries had not yet been mechanised by the Controller and Accountant-General, have given one-month ultimatum to have their salaries mechanised for as professional teachers else they will advise themselves.

The teachers, who have been teaching for over one year now, said the situation is causing them a lot of hardships. At a meeting held on Monday at New Edubiase Mr Abubakari Mohammed Nurideen, spokesman for the teachers, said their salaries are supposed to have been mechanised in December last year but to date this had not been done.

He said they are taking 400,000 cedis a month as allowance and this is making life unbearable for them since about 90 percent of them do not come from the district where they can fall on relatives and friends for assistance.

Mr Nurideen said some of them borrow from their landlords to survive and are indebted to the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), resulting in the disconnection of their lights.

He has, therefore, appealed to the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, the Ghana Education Service (GES), the Adansi East District Director of Education and the district assembly to address the problem. When Mr Twumasi Amponsah, the District Director of Education was contacted, he sympathised with the and said his office forwarded all the necessary documents to Accra since last year and that he did not know what is causing the delay in mechanising the salaries.