Members and leadership of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) remain defiant despite threats of salary freezes by their employers.
In an interview on JoyNews, a member of CETAG’s national communications team, Fedilis Kamaayi said they remain resolute in their over six-week strike in demand of better conditions of service.
According to him, CETAG members were aware that freezing salaries was one of the strategies the employers were going to deploy to get them to call off their strike, therefore they were prepared for it.
When the directive was issued, it has even motivated and gingered most of our tutors and they are saying that they should even take the August salary in addition because until all the arbitrary awards are implemented, they can go ahead and continue to freeze the salaries,” he said.
Mr Kamaayi added that the members have psyched themselves for what is to happen next.
His comments follow the Minister of Education’s directive to Principals and the Controller and Accountant General not to validate the July 2024 salaries of the teaching staff of the 46 public colleges of education due to their ongoing strike.
The strike, which began on June 14 has already caused significant disruption to academic activities, with most students leaving campus.
Asked whether they were prepared to continue the strike action, Mr Kamaayi expressed confidence that the issues would be resolved soon.
“We have students in final year who have one more semester for them to complete and we have also started selling admission forms for new level 100s to be admitted. So, if you look at all these things, it will not augur well for the educational system in the country so our employer will not go there.”
Meanwhile, President of the Conference of Principals of the Colleges of Education, Professor Samuel Atintono says the freeze on teachers’ salaries cannot be reversed.
“It was GTEC that wrote the letter not to validate the July salaries so not until GTEC writes again, we cannot reverse,” he said
It added that males aged between 15 and 64 years were the main victims of road traffic crashes, with vulnerable road users, such as motorcyclists, cyclists and pedestrians, being the worst affected.
The report attributed the rise to multiple factors, including inadequate road safety laws and standards, indicating: “no country in the region currently has laws that meet the best practice standards for the five key road safety behavioural risk factors – speeding, drink driving, non-use of motorcycle helmets, seatbelts and child restraints.”
It added that limited investments in alternative modes of transport, including cycling and walking, had fuelled road-related fatalities on the continent, with 13 per cent of countries having national strategies to promote walking or cycling.
“These so-called multimodal transport systems have been determined to be more equitable and environmentally friendly, and safer for road users,” the report added.
The report added that post-crash care services in the region were inadequate or unavailable in most countries – fewer than one-third have services that met recommended levels of access to pre-hospital care, emergency care, and treatment and rehabilitation services.
The WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said the findings of the report pointed to a serious public health concern for African countries, “with hundreds of thousands of lives being lost unnecessarily”.
“As WHO, we’re committed to working hand in hand with countries to tackle this preventable threat and continue to fully support all efforts to make our roads safer for motorists and pedestrians alike,” he said.
Action
The WHO representative in Kenya, Abdourahmane Diallo, stated that for Africa to reduce the burden of road accidents, countries needed to revamp transport infrastructure, retrain motorists, and promote safety education targeting motorists, pedestrians and cyclists.
