Editorial: Appointment of new GES Director General and matters arising

On October 17, the Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Professor Kwasi Opoku-Amankwa, was relieved of his post. This was contained in a letter written to him by the Secretary to the President, Nana Asante Bediatuo, on behalf of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The Office of the President subsequently named Dr. Eric Nkansah as the new Director General of the Ghana Education Service. His appointment which is an acting one takes immediate effect pending the advice of the Governing Council of the GES and the Public Services Commission.

However, this announcement has been received with mixed reaction. The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has given an ultimatum to President Akufo-Addo to revoke the appointment. According to GNAT, they find “the replacement of Prof. Opoku Amankwa with Dr. Eric Nkansah, a banker, not only as unfortunate but untenable” and, therefore, call for the revocation and subsequent appointment of an educationist to occupy that position.

The Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana has also threatened strike action by November 4, 2022 if the President fails to revoke Dr. Eric Nkansah’s appointment. They argue that the newly appointed Director General is not an educationist and has no teaching experience, thus, they are not ready to work with him.

In contrast to the above opinion held by the Teacher Unions, another Teachers group, called Teachers Forum, disagrees with the call for the revocation of Dr. Eric Nkansah’s appointment.

According to them, the teaching fraternity should rather come together and rally behind the new GES Director General because he is capable of delivering to the expectation of all.

The group refuted the claims that the acting Director General has no teaching experience, because the man has been a lecturer for over twelve years.

The Chronicle is not happy with the division being publicly shown over the suitability of Dr. Eric Nkansah as acting Director-General (D-G) of the Ghana Education Service. We may all be missing the point if the division on the new appointment is about whether the new D-G is an Educationist or a Banker.

Rather, we should be interested in what consultative processes took place among stakeholders before the appointment was made? The Chronicle holds the view that whether Dr. Eric Nkansah is an Educationist or a Banker, if the stakeholders had been properly consulted and briefed, we would not see this open display of denunciation by the various Teachers’ unions.

The Teachers groups should channel their grievances through the established internal structures to settle the issues amicably. The appointing authorities should also bed backwards to listen to the plea of the Teacher groups since they form the new D-G’s administrative constituency.

The threat of embarking on a strike action is not the right way to go since the academic calendar that was disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic is gradually taking shape and the last thing the Education sector needs is another interruption.

The Chronicle hopes all the relevant stakeholders will come together to resolve the issue before it escalates.

 

 

 

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