Government will this week address the grievances of the Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG), whose members are on strike over service conditions, Professor Kwesi Yankah, Minister of State in-charge of Tertiary Education has assured.
But the announcement does not elicit any positive feedback from the striking teachers.
Speaking to the chairman of TUTAG, Dr Anthony Ayakwah on Rite Morning Ride on Monday morning said, his members will not return to lecture halls until their demands are met.
Professor Kwesi Yankah however, insisted that a continued strike action was no longer necessary as negotiations between the association and Government over the matter have been smooth and just about ending with fruitful outcomes.
Professor Yankah, therefore, urged TUTAG to demonstrate goodwill by going back to the classrooms to resume teaching to avoid derailing the academic calendar.
Meanwhile, Dr Anthony Ayakwah said Polytechnics have been elevated to technical universities about three years ago, but their condition of service cannot be matched to their colleague lectures at the main stream universities.
According to him, negotiations have in existence since the migration of polytechnics but government has shown little or no concern over the issues
“The government has an arrears of salary and allowances to pay us, due to this some of the lecturers have stopped teaching at the technical universities. If we have been converted to universities then we must receive salaries just like university lecturers, but no, the government is not being fair to us in terms of salary and allowances.”
“Our allowance is not even encouraging, the highest is Gch25 and sometimes as lowest as Ghc10. Other universities lecturers get more than that; this is total cheat” he lamented.
The Minister of State was speaking at the investiture of the first substantive Vice Chancellor of the Ho Technical University (HTU), Professor Ben Q. Honyenuga, in Ho on Saturday assured Ghanaians that government will soon resolve the differences.
Source: ritefmonline.org/Akosua Mavis Atteh
