CHEREPONI: Allowances meant for teachers deducted by organizers of GES Lively Minds after workshop

CHEREPONI: Allowances meant for teachers deducted by organizers of GES Lively Minds after workshop

Teachers in the Chereponi district of the North-East Region have expressed their displeasure after the organizers of the GES Lively Minds workshop decided to deduct their allowances without any tangible reason. According to the teacher who narrated his ordeal, he revealed that the organizers of the workshop included the District Director of Education, AD Supervision, The Accountant, and the TVET coordinator.

Teachers in the kindergarten level were called for a 5-day workshop where each teacher was promised GHS150 as overnight allowance and GHS30 each day for teachers who traveled all the way from villages only to be told that only twenty-seven (27) schools will be selected for the overnight allowances which represent one-third of the village primary schools in the district.

A teacher who narrated this to Educandghana.net revealed that teachers who were fortunate to receive the overnight allowances were forced to sign against GHS 900 but only received GHS 750. The teacher expressed how sad he was as he find it difficult to understand why they all participated in the same workshop and performed the same activity for others to be paid GHS750 whilst others received GHS150. Meanwhile, the village school teachers were entitled to the overnight allowance.

The victim who felt he has been cheated indicated that the programme commenced from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm each day. The organizers did them no good as far as feeding is concerned. He narrated how they were underfed.

“The organizers serve us only launch with pure water (sachet water) for these long hours for all the five days-no snack and the quality of the meal is zero. On some of the days, we were served TZ which will cost GHS 2.00 in the market and GHS 1.00 meat and the quality is nothing to write home about” he added.

They are therefore calling on the Ghana Education Service (GES) and all stakeholders to come to their aid by ensuring the appropriate measures are taken to end this canker in the district.

BACKGROUND OF GES LIVELY MINDS

The GES lively Minds is a programme is specifically designed for implementation in remote rural communities and has been co-created with local government and communities. It works through Ghana Education Service (GES) and the kindergarten system. Kindergarten teachers act as trainers and the mothers come into the classroom every day to give a helping hand to teachers.