The Greater Accra branch of the Tertiary Educational Institutions Network (TEIN) of the National Democratic Congress, has appealed to teachers to call-off the strike since their action would affect the future of the students writing their final exams.
They said their appeal was not to undermine the rightful claims of teachers, but to urge them to dialogue with the relevant stakeholders while they continued to superintend the preparation of students for their final exams.
A statement signed by David Kumi Addo and Ebenezer Portakey, Convener and Deputy Convener of the regional TEIN said, as students they had experienced many of such challenges and they knew how it felt, especially when it happened during examination time.
It said the teaching profession was very important in any society and any attempt to marginalize teachers in any form should be frown upon as they trained and produced the needed human resource for the country.
The statement said their current strike was not the best option in resolving the existing labour disagreement and salary negotiations as all parties must be ready to lose some and win some.
It said the existing negotiation must consider the various processes such as the collective bargaining, mediation, arbitration and standing joint consultative committees, which should be fully exhausted as stipulated in the Labor Act 651 (2003).
It expressed unhappiness that many public institutions often resorted to strike as the first option to resolve disagreement with their employers when there were other initial steps to be considered. This, the statement said, was not the best practice, especially when coming from teachers mandated to impact knowledge into the young ones.
It said: “We believe that this is a listening government that is following the created collaborative structures within which the stakeholders can deliberate and reach an appreciable level of success. We therefore commend the government for demonstrating its willingness to resolve these issues”.
