The Teacher Trainees Association (TTAG), a teacher trainee group, has denied agreeing to the posting of newly trained teachers by the National Service Scheme (NSS).
The Ministry of Education said it has reached an agreement with some trainee teacher groups for newly trained teachers to be posted by the NSS.
According to a statement from the Education Ministry, the postings will be done in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the National Teaching Council (NTC).
The statement indicated that this was agreed upon after a meeting between government, the leadership of TTAG, Teacher and Trainees Advocacy (TTA), and Coalition of Newly Trained Teachers (CNTT).
“The leadership of TTAG, TTA, and the CNTT, are expected to discuss with the NSS the registration information given to the NSS by the GES,” the statement added.
It was also agreed that the probation, induction and national service period of newly trained teachers would take place concurrently.
But a major point of contention remained unsettled as the statement said the leadership of the teacher trainee groups will later “meet with the GES to establish the processes leading to full employment.”
TTAG in a statement later, said “we would like to state categorically that the said statement does not represent the true outcome of the meeting. There was no sort of agreement as stated in the press release from the Ministry of Education.”
It however said it was looking forward to “meeting GES also for insight” and urged all newly trained teachers to “refrain from registering for national service.”
Background
The National Service Scheme said it released about 14,000 pin codes to get trainee teachers across the country to undertake a compulsory one-year national service before being employed by the government.
A new directive from the government stipulates that newly trained teachers will undertake their service after writing the Teacher Licensure Examinations.
Newly trained teachers earlier vowed to resist all attempts by the government to force them to undertake the mandatory national service.
According to them, they had been promised immediate postings after writing the licensure exam.
