Addae-Poku heads NAGRAT

Page 17
11-01-10

MR Christian Addae-Poku has assumed the leadership of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) with a pledge that the association will use dialogue to get what is due its members.
“We will improve our relationship with the Ghana Education Service (GES) and work hard to use dialogue to resolve issues as has always been the case. This is not to say that other issues may not be on the table when the situation demands. We in turn expect commitment and fair play from management and other players in the labour industry to ensure harmonious work environment,” he said.
Mr Addae-Poku was speaking at a ceremony in which he took over the mantle of leadership of NAGRAT from Mr Kwame Alorvi, who has been President of the association since September 2003.
He said the association would pursue administrative reforms that would enable the union to meet the needs of its members, adding that the association needed reforms in its structures.
He said facilities such as the office accommodation for national and regional secretariats would have to be provided at strategic places to provide relevant service to members.
Mr Addae-Poku indicated that NAGRAT would take up responsibilities such as organising in-service training and refresher courses for teachers to improve their quality.
“What we need now is a new era of responsibility in which every teacher will have a duty to himself, his profession and society and this my colleagues and I do hereby pledge our undivided commitment,” he said.
He said poor remuneration, inadequate training and retraining, low morale in the service, high retention rate and the lack of collegial relationship in the service had denied the job its professionalism, saying that “it behoves of us all now to create the enabling environment for the profession to claim its rightful position in society if we are to achieve education for all by the year 2015”.
Mr Addae-Poku said for a decade and a half years graduate teachers had fought hard to establish the association and given it the might to amplify the voices of voiceless teachers within the GES.
Torrid and frustrating the journey had been, he said, “we have never wavered in our struggle for quality teaching and learning, better learning environment, better conditions of service for teachers as well as fulfilling our constitutional right to form or join a trade union of our choice”.
Mr Alorvi, for his part, expressed his gratitude to officers and regional executives for their support throughout his tenure of office.
“I will also like to thank the office staff both national and regional for their dedication to duty and encouragement,” he emphasised.
He said when his team of executives took over the leadership of NAGRAT on September 12, 2003, the challenges were daunting in spite of the tremendous effort put in by its pioneer officers to change things for the better.
Mr Alorvi said the challenges included a low membership drive due to the uncertainty of the association and the problem of the automatic deduction of dues from the salaries of graduate teachers by the Controller and Accountant General’s Department for an association they had not opted to join.
“In summary there was general despondency among the graduate fraternity. These problems had to be confronted headlong by leadership bringing us into a collision course with those who did not want to see reason. We confronted the GES and its council, the Ministry of Education, Controller and Accountant General’s Department, heads of schools Ministers of State, National Security apparatus, the National Labour Commission and even the seat of Government, the Castle,” he stated.