NAGRAT wants to meet GES despite the reversal of the academic calendar
Though the trimester system for basic schools has been reinstated, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) is still looking forward to meeting the Ghana Education Service for further details into the reversed academic calendar.
It will be recalled that the Education Ministry wanted to introduce a semester-based academic calendar in the basic schools but backlash from stakeholders especially teachers made the Ministry back down on its decision.
While pleased about this development, the President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu stated that, reiterated that the meeting is crucial in determining the fine details.
“There should be a meeting between the union leaders and management of the Ghana Education Service so that we can work on the details of the trimester system. I am talking about the number of weeks that the children will have to be in school and the number of weeks the teachers and students will have vacation. This is an exercise in which the teacher unions and GES have to engage in, and we are looking forward that in the coming weeks, we will sit own and come up with appropriate details”, he told the media.
The directive for basic schools, including Kindergarten, and Junior High Schools, to change the trimester-based calendar to a semester-based one last week, received some backlash with many teacher unions kicking against it.
Most of the stakeholders were not enthused that the government had not properly engaged them on such a major decision, although the government insisted that it had held extensive consultations with them.
This led to some of the education workers vowing to resist the directive while calling for its withdrawal.
The government had no choice but to reverse that decision after initially hesitating.
The Education Ministry in its statement indicated that the decision was taken after engagements with various education stakeholders and the conclusion was to reinstate the trimester system.
Consequently, the first term is scheduled to resume from January 18 to 14th April 2022.
Also, the second term commences 10th May and ends on 18th August 2022, while the third term will span 13th September to 22nd December 2022.
By: Stella Annan | myactiveonline.com Twitter @activetvgh
