The Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) has dismissed suggestions to close all Teacher Trainee Colleges in response to the ongoing strike by the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG).
CETAG initiated a nationwide strike on June 14 due to the government’s failure to address their arbitral awards and other service conditions. This strike, now in its second week, has disrupted academic activities, resulting in mostly empty campuses.
In an interview with Citi News, Professor Francis K. E. Nunoo, Deputy Director General of GTEC, explained that closing the colleges is not a feasible solution due to the severe financial impact it would have. “Closing the school has financial implications, as well as their staying in school, as you have said. But we were hoping that we have done quite a lot of work, and quite a lot of all their demands are virtually almost addressed,” he noted.
Professor Nunoo expressed hope that the issues would be resolved soon, allowing students to return to their studies. “So we were hoping that in the next few days, we will bring to a finality to the issues so that they can go back to school. Students are meanwhile doing their practical work so the practical work needs to be supervised. At least they are getting busy with their practical work,” he said.
He also mentioned that GTEC remains optimistic CETAG will call off the strike soon, but will consider closing the colleges only if other solutions fail. “We are hopeful that in the next few days, CETAG will see a reason to call off the strike. It is when all these do not yield fruit, and then we will consider it,” he added.
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