Teachers from the various teacher unions in the Ashanti Region are demonstrating today against the imposition of an insurance policy on them by the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The aggrieved teachers want the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) to stop deducting GH¢10, from the salaries of teachers.
Prosper Takyi, Head of Media Relations for the Ghana National Teachers Association (GNAT), confirming toady’s demonstration, in an interview with to ADR Daily, said the regional group of teachers is protesting for the authorities to act within the shortest possible time to cease the deduction for their salaries.
“We don’t want that formula. Insurance is a contract between an insurer and an insured, and the truth is that if indeed they mean well, they are supposed to go out with designed forms so that they capture their beneficiaries,” he stated.
In June, 2018, the Ghana Education Service and the State Insurance Company (SIC) introduced a group life insurance policy that covers teachers in public basic and senior high schools across the country. The implementation of the policy witnessed a deduction of GH¢10 from teachers’ salaries through the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD), a move vehemently opposed by the various teacher unions
Although the GES in a letter dated February 27, 2019, and signed by Director General, Professor Kwasi Opoku Amankwa, urged teachers who are not interested in the deal to fill an exit form which was available at all GES offices, the teachers insist that GES should withdraw the policy.
“You just don’t come up with a policy without consultation; you don’t have details of the beneficiaries, yet you start deductions. They have added every teacher, including those who have about two to three months to retire. What type of policy is that,” he quizzed.
According to Mr. Takyi, the teachers have vowed to continue to protest until the policy, in its current stated, is abolished.
Benjamin Nana Appiah/adrdaily.com
