The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has denounced this action by the Ghana Education Service to interdict the West Africa Senior High School (WASS) headmistress for allegedly taking money from students without permission.
In a statement, GNAT referred to the Ghana Education Services’ decision to indict the headmistress as malicious and claimed that it was made solely for the purpose of concealing its own failings and blaming them on helpless and vulnerable teachers.
“Once again, the Ghana Education Service, GES, has gone into overdrive, and is at its usual sinister best, seeking to cover its own shortcomings of not addressing the numerous challenges facing the smooth running of the public basic and secondary schools. This behaviour is bringing the personalities of school heads and teachers, and their skills and competencies into question, disrepute, and opprobrium. The GES must put its own house in order internally, before going to town every now and then with school heads who have become pawns in its blame game.”
“The other day, the Head of Fijai school was at the receiving end, only for the PTA to come out to absolve her/him of any wrongdoing or malfeasance; but then the harm had already been done. How would she/he hold herself/himself in society and before her/his students, family, church, mosque, and the larger society henceforth? And now Dr (Mrs) Shine Agatha Ofori? Would these persons be restituted in the end, if found to have committed no wrong? We await an answer from the GES and all who matter.”
GNAT explained that some administrators frequently pre-financed the operation of their schools due to government delays and later received reimbursement, but because the government and the GES took pleasure in accusing its members, it advised all “school heads, teachers, and our members not to pre-finance the operation of the schools from their own resources, going forward, since doing so would be misinterpreted, and awarded with shame, suspension, and interdiction, as has happened to Dr (Mrs) Shine Agatha Ofori and her colleagues.”
Read the full statement from GNAT below:
