Blog

ATAG commends you for your commitment and indefatigable work on this International Labour Day. We say ayeekoo to all Ghanaian teachers.
Happy Labour day!

We want to bring to the attention of members that ATAG has successfully partnered with the following companies to serve electronic home appliances and gadgets to MEMBERS. We will also want to encourage NON MEMBERS to apply same as the opportunity is not limited to only ATAG members. We should understand that all items will be purchased at the MARKET Price on hire purchase:

1. Electroland GH LTD

2. Somotex Ghana LTD

3. TCL Electronics

4. Somovision

5. NOVOTEC

6. MACLAND

7. KAISER WEST AFRICA

8. CMC Creative

Kindly contact the +233 24 410 1020 for further information.

In 1925, the first teacher union known as Government School Teacher Union (GSTU) was outdoored. GSTU faced protest because it did not represent all teachers since it excluded teachers who did not teach in Government Schools. After the protest, the colonial government slapped teachers with 29% tax on their salaries for gross misconduct. This necessitated the formation of Assisted School Teachers Union (ASTU) in 1931 with teachers mostly drawn from schools set up by religious bodies. This body later embraced teachers in both government schools and set up schools managed by religious bodies. Subsequently, GSTU and ASTU reached an agreement to come together as one union under the common name Gold Coast Teachers’ Union (GCTU). These were the earliest unions which trended in the then Gold Coast.

Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) was inaugurated on July 14, 1962 as a separate organization independent of TUC. It was classified by Trustee Incorporation Act of 1962 as strictly voluntary. Since then successive governments have recognized it as the sole representative body of teachers in the pre-tertiary level. To make the Association stronger, an act of Parliament (Act 506, 1995) that set up the Ghana Education Service Council also gave GNAT the power to seek, promote, in accordance with law, the interests and well-being of members (Teachers). The membership of GNAT was 194,000 in April 2012.

However, the monopoly of GNAT was broken when the Labour Act of 2003 was introduced. The Act seeks to grant freedom of association to all labourers across the country to form associations and unions to champion their common interest. Eventually, NAGRAT and CCT were formed as a law required championing the course of teachers who believed GNAT should not be the sole association managing teachers. The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) was formed out of dissection with GNAT dealings on issues concerning graduate teachers in Ghana. It was constituted as an autonomous body by a resolution adopted at its National Delegates Congress at St. Louis Training College, Kumasi, in October 1998. By 2012, the membership strength of NAGRAT was 20,000.

The history of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana could be traced to the Ashanti Region, where the group was formed in the wake of agitations by teachers over discrepancies in their salaries. By 2011, the coalition was making a strong wave in Ghana and had become a major thorn in the flesh of GNAT and NAGRAT. It was believed that the CCT-Ghana was angry with the leadership of GNAT and the NAGRAT for failing to represent the true interest of teachers during negotiations. The coalition describes the leadership of the two bodies as being ‘incompetent’ since they failed woefully in negotiating properly on the teachers’ retention premium by then.
However, cracks in the minds of the leaderships of the three professional teachers’ unions in the country have come to the fore in the recent struggles of teachers in Ghana for better conditions.

In 2013, the ministry of finance introduced the three months payment policy of which teachers were most affected. The harsh nature of this policy resulted in the formation of a pressure group known as Victims of Three Months Arrears Pay Policy (V3MAPP) who felt the government had been unfair to them. The group alleges among others that teaching in Ghana has not been palatable since successive governments decided to subject teachers to several harsh treatment from training to practice. The group strongly held the view that the various Teachers’ Unions, especially GNAT and NAGRAT, had performed abysmally in defending their course.

Whilst the V3MAPP agitation was raging, another teacher union surfaced calling themselves the All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG). ATAG was born in May in 2016 and became a fully-fledged union in September the same year. ATAG also believed that the grassroots teachers had been ignored by the mother unions as they did not seek the collective interest of the teachers they represent. They accused GNAT of being in bed with GES and doing the biddings of the government and NAGRAT of being too dormant and unresponsive. They believe teachers’ dues and funds are not managed to be benefited fully by teachers but rather used to increase the burden of teachers through insatiable loans. The rights of teachers are constantly abused without protection from these mother unions and teacher standards of living continue to dwindle on a continuous basis. ATAG then became the fourth union adding up to the existing unions namely GNAT, NAGRAT and CCT.

It seems teachers across the country had lost trust and confidence in teacher unions representing them. While some hold the strong view that ‘only one union’ is enough to avoid manipulations others think that idea infringes on the right of teachers.

Over the years teachers have known GNAT as the only teacher union with much influence and power. But many believe that there is too much laxity in GNAT in fighting for the right of teachers. GNAT independence had been compromised by their strong institutional nature and connection with GES. The emergence of NAGRAT and CCT seem to have added more injury to sour as pertinent issues about teachers are not their uttermost concern. There’s a crazy appetite for amassing wealth through the accumulation of assets of which teachers don’t benefit directly. Teachers can’t even tell who and who directly owe these assets.

Teachers’ rights are being raped in broad daylight to say the least, even when these unions exist. For example, payment of welfare in some districts is compulsorily deducted from source, which bank to receive your salary is determined by your district, lack of decent accommodation, lack of incentives and proper motivation, teachers are denied the option of setting their own exams questions, just to mention a few. Many ill government policies which affect teachers adversely have passed under the bridge without check. Teachers are being shortchanged by successive governments with harsh policies and the unions are helpless.

People cannot easily associate themselves with the teaching profession due to lack of confidence and trust. Meagre salary, no grants such as for accommodation or logistic movement or extracurricular activities, no health insurance, scholarship packages and motivations and a whole lot. Unfortunately, these acclaimed unions have grave weaknesses which make them either ineffective or malfunction in representing teachers in full force.

Perhaps, I may like to spare the ATAG group since they just stepped into the arena. If the trust and confidence can be restored in the profession then ATAG must work hard to represent the interest of teachers well. ATAG would have to demand answers to important questions that many teachers seek on issues bordering the profession and the general well-being of teachers.

They have to demand on behalf of teachers without equivocation what is entail in “salaries, fringe benefits and allowances, hours of work, contact hours, leave for union activities, class size and work load, principles of engagement and termination of service including redundancy, probation, transfers, promotion and housing, sick leave with pay, training and retraining, medical schemes, study and release of employees” which is enshrined in the bargaining agreement signed on behalf of teachers by GNAT with GES.

I know many teachers out of frustration and loss of hope wish no teacher unions exist and will even bastardize any new one before it is born. I believe all is not lost. Putting faith and confidence in emerging ones can help to change the status quo as members of the profession will have the opportunity to place a proper check on any new union and guide it to the path of best practices. There is hope for the young generational teachers because there is/are alternative (s) which they can help to shape to make the profession a glorious one.

Long live Ghana!! Long live Teacher Unions!!

By Isaac Ofori
MA Population Studies & BA Geography and Resource Development
0249403277/isaacofori449@gmail.com

Apply Now!

ATAG is offering a good package in hire purchase. The Alliance thinks about the welfare of its members and is offering a good deal on all hire purchase. If you know of hire purchase in other associations as a burden, then ATAG is here with a difference. Pick up any item from any shop and contact the Alliance as a member and buy at a market price. There is no need to pay for more on little things that you need to make life comfortable.

Teachers who wants to use good electronics (TV, Hoofer, Laptops, Washing Machines, Mobile Phone etc.); Kitchen equipment (Burner, Cylinder, Kitchen sets etc.); Building materials (cement, blocks, iron rod) should get ready to access these items at market price and pay without interest.

Requirements:

(1) Visit the shop you want to buy from.
(2) Identify the item you want to purchase.
(3) Forward the item and the market price to atagfund.gh@gmail.com
(4) Submit two mandate forms.
(5) Get back to the shop and let the payment be done to the shop managers after validation.

This is a true unionism seeking true welfare. Don’t let anyone deceive you. ATAG is shifting the paradigm and let us all support it.

Join the All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG) on the www.gogpayslip.com through the Change of Association Form and become a member and begin to enjoy amazing welfare packages. Remember the future is now not tomorrow. Pension is not an option for today’s living. If it must be done, it must be done now.

Send us a mail through atag.gh@gmail.com or call 0241871847 / 0244101020

The following reasons must convince you to join the All Teachers Alliance Ghana as a member:

1. ATAG gives affordable loan at a rate of 8% per annum.

2. Members are able to make an easy loan application online and receive their loan amount within a short period of time.

3. ATAG is committed to reducing the rate on loans further to 5% per annum with increasing membership.

4. ATAG is operating as a welfare association not as a financial institution. Our certification identifies us as such as well CAGD.

5. ATAG hire purchase is interest free. Members buy items and pay at market price.

6. ATAG mutual fund increment is an individual decision and members can choose to increase it on their own.

7. ATAG believes strongly that welfare contributions cannot be relied on as future pension emolument since ¢20,000 cannot serve any meaningful purpose in 10 years or more to come. If it must be done, it must be done now.

8. ATAG seeks the welfare of members strongly whilst in active service: build houses, drive cars, give their children better education, live a decent life in the society etc whilst in active service not when on pension.

9. The more members ATAG gets the more easier it becomes for it to fulfill its pledge to its members.

10. ATAG is a credible legal union recognized by GES, Labour Department, Ministry of Labour and Employment, Ministry of Education, National Teaching Council and Controller and Accountant General’s Department.

Join ATAG through the www.gogpayslip.com change of association handle and let us together begin to take teacher unionism into a different level of seeking the true welfare of teachers.