Dear Sir/Madam,

 EXTENDED TEACHING HOURS BY JHS TEACHERS

The attention of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has been drawn to a new policy by the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service that requires Junior High School Teachers to teach for additional 4 hours each day of the week in addition to a full session on Saturdays. The policy, according to the Director General and the Minister of Education, is to help improve the performance of Junior High School Pupils in the B.E.C.E.

Whilst GNAT applauds the initiative of the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service to improve on education quality, it also abhors the way and manner teachers have been conscripted into the exercise without due regard to conditions of employment of teachers and the Labour provisions on the performance of work outside the official working hours.

Section 35 sub-sections 1 and 2 of the Labour Act (Act 2003) states as follows:

1.         ‘Subject to subsections(2) and (3), where a worker in an undertaking works after the hours of work fixed by the rules of that undertaking, the additional hours done shall be regarded as over time work’.

2.         ‘A worker in any such undertaking may not be required to do over time work unless that undertaking has fixed rates of pay for overtime work’.

 A meeting with the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service on Monday, January 23, 2012 to address the extended working hours agreed on the following for immediate implementation:

1.         Participation in the extra hours teaching is not compulsory.

2.         Ghana Education Service should inform District Directors to ask teachers who want to take part in the exercise to apply to do so without any compulsion.

3.         Teachers who apply to participate should be issued with an official letter of commitment.

4.         Payment for overtime work as applied in the public services of Ghana in general and the collective agreement for teachers shall apply in each case.

5.         Director General would write to communicate the decisions to all Regional and District Directors of Education for strict compliance.

 Kindly communicate this information to all our members and ensure that no teacher is victimized as a result of his /her unwillingness to participate in the exercise.

 We count on your usual cooperation.

 Yours truly,

Signed

IRENE DUNCAN-ADANUSA.

GENERAL SECRETARY.

 COPIES:

1. The Hon. Minister for Education, Accra.
2. The Deputy Ministers for Education, Accra.
3. The Director-General, GES, Accra