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GES: Assist this’ helpless’ teacher!!!
A 40-year-old basic school teacher in the Upper Manya Krobo District of the Eastern Region , is said to have been given compulsory retirement notice before his statutory retirement age is due.
The teacher, Mr Isaac Kwabla Tettey, is said to have been teaching for the past 20 years and is currently stationed at Sutapong , near Sekesua, in the Upper Manya Krobo District.
Reportedly, his employers, the Ghana Education Service (GES), recently notified him to proceed on retirement because he has reached the statutory retirement age of 60.
Mr Tettey is, however, protesting the directive ordering him to proceed on retirement; claiming that he was born on 31st December 1981 not 1961 as being contended by his employers.
Indeed, Mr Tettey places the contentious ‘grievous anomaly’ surrounding his untimely retirement at the door-steps of the GES.
Reportedly, Mr Tettey’s records at the Social Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT) , clearly indicate that his birthdate is 31st December 1981, as filled by him when he signed and submitted the SSNIT form at the time he was employed.
Speaking to 3FM Radio recently, Mr Tettey traced the anomaly of his retirement date to the District Directorate of Education that submitted his personal records to the GES Head Office in Accra.
Mr Tettey said: ” I think that the person in-putting the information to the GES Head Office made it 1961 instead of 1981.
“It was after I received my notice of retirement that I observed that there was something wrong.”
He said, when he complained to SSNIT about the anomaly, he was directed to go to the GES to rectify it.
According to Mr Tettey, the GES had requested for his Class One Attendance Register to confirm his year of birth but when he followed up to the school where he attended Class One, the Headmistress could not trace the Class One Attendance Register.
From the way Mr Tettey was lamenting on 3FM Radio, his claim could be a very genuine clerical or typographical error on the part of his employers.
But all the same, investigation can establish the truth or falsity of his assertions. Shakespeare says:”There is no art to find the mind’s construction on the face.”
So, it is only proper investigation into the matter that will assist the GES to arrive at the truth.
In Ghana, it is not common for an individual teacher to walk to a ‘news station’ to ‘trumpet’ his plight to the hearing of the entire nation.
Rather, it is teacher- labour institutions like the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and National Association of Graduate Teachers ( NAGRAT) which are often heard in the media ‘battling’ government over salaries and other conditions of service.
Mr Tettey is said to be a member of GNAT. So, GNAT must take this matter up with the GES to ensure that the matter is expeditiously resolved.
Some teachers, however, contend that there are a lot of bureaucratic bottlenecks in the ‘ large womb’ of the GES ; to the extent that even ‘ minor’ ‘ teacher-issues’ take years and years to be resolved by the GES.
Please, GES, if what the teachers are saying is true, then surprise the whole nation by expediting action on this particular matter.
A research study of “Perceived Consequences of Unplanned Retirement Staff of Educational Institutions” has, however, recommended that Institutions should invest in pre-retirement activities for their staff before their retirement.
The four authors of the study are Adwoa Kwegyiriba, Olivia Agyemang, Joseph Eshun and Roland Osei Mensah.
The four researchers have called for greater sensitsation on pre-retirement planning, contending that workers must be alerted about perceived retirement consequences very early in their working life, so as to allow adequate time to prepare to adjust to better life towards retirement.
The researchers recommend that an employee’s date of retirement should be attached to his or her appointment letter to keep the retirement date in mind, right from the very beginning of one’s working life.
The four scholars recommend also that government should establish a policy that would compel all organisations and Institutions in the country to organise retirement seminars for their employees, who have between 10 and 15 years to retire.
This, they claim, would give them better space to prepare before their retirement.
The fact of the matter is that, many retirees in Ghana do not have decent retirement life. This is because Ghanaian workers and their employers do not prepare adequately for this phase of life through education and planning.
Really, it takes considerable time and resources to prepare an individual to enter employment, and so similarly, the employee has to be prepared adequately to exit employment, when he is due for retirement.
Many workers who may not know what to do with their lives after retirement, often turn to be hopeless.
As we patiently wait for the outcome of Mr Tettey’s retirement ‘palava’ from the GES , this column urges government and all employment institutions and organisations to urgently consider the study undertaken by the four scholars and actualise some of their lofty recommendations; to ease the burden of prospective retirees.
Contact email/WhatsApp of the author :
asmahfrankg@gmail.com (0505556179)
By G. Frank Asmah
The fool says in his heart, “There is no God”. The Holy Bible (Psalm 53:1)
The greatest gift I ever received was the Bible, given to me by Mr Anyetei Sowah of BIBLE HOUSE on April 4, 1991. It saved my life. He was my mate in sixth form, and while some of us were easy-going, perpetually looking for adventure in town, he was a bit different and we all respected and admired him for his Godly ways, his mild manners, his wise counsel.
When I became a journalist, he paid me a visit and asked me to attend one of his plays which was staged at the Arts Centre. He performed in this magnificent drama and I recall the role of one character, Reverend Sozo Macumbe. As a reward for being present, Anyetei presented me with a gift – The Holy Bible. It was more than One Million Dollars.
Earlier, I had always wanted to possess one but found it extremely difficult to purchase although it was very cheap, about the equivalent of two bottles lager beer. I could buy several lagers for myself and friends and yet couldn’t bring myself to spending on a Bible.
When Anyetei brought me the wonderful gift, I confessed almost on my knees that if he hadn’t presented me with the Bible, I couldn’t have bought one for myself no matter how hard I tried. I then blamed the devil for my inability to spend on a Bible rather than on beer. Of course, everybody blames the devil, so why not Kwame Alomele.
The Bible I got made me quite religious and as I read through and prayed, I was able to veer from dangerous paths of temptation and self-destruction. It was also an opportunity for me to reminisce my born-again days of old when I drew very close to Christ until Satan tore me away and re-baptised me fully into sin.
I really did not know what happened to me at the time. I was strongly in the faith but suddenly Satan came round and presented the whole world to me in exchange for my soul. On the whole, it was not a bad deal and I accepted Satan’s offer. Man mon enjoy life, abi!
When Anyetei’s Bible came, I told myself, “Kwame, you’ll fall a thousand times and take the mandatory count like a battered boxer. But you won’t remain sprawled, in the name of Jesus! You’ll crawl, you’ll stagger but eventually rise above beer bottles and continue from where you left off. Halleluyah!”
Yeah, you’ve got to give God his due. If you are a Christian, be strong in the faith and don’t be a mere church-goer; if a Moslem, don’t fail to pray and read the Koran daily; if you’re a Buddhist, chant ‘Myoho renge kyo nam’ till your jaw breaks; and if you’re a follower of Krishna, chant ‘Hare Krishna Hare’ till you collapse. And if you want to follow the devil too, please go ahead and wind up in hell. And in hell, you’ll find yourself in the form of ‘human khebab, precisely ‘human suya’. Hare.
In any case, research has shown that religious persons rarely become neurotic or psychotic. A person who is in a grave financial distress but is religious would hardly commit suicide.
Aside all the divine benefits, there is a psychological consolation that with God all things are possible. This is not only psychological, but real.
Those who are religious and get gilted by their boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands or wives just laugh it off. They never get broken-hearted to the point of mental derangement.
After lamenting a day or two over the loss of her lover, a gilted girl who is truly religious would declare that “Jesus is now my boyfriend”. She would never go mourning for days, weeks, months and end up at the Psychiatric Hospital. No, not when Jesus has taken over the show.
Of late, I’ve come a bit closer to Jesus not because I’ve been gilted by a ‘babe’ or in financial distress; far from these. I have realised that a youngman must organise his life and your life can hardly be organised if you are not religious. Jesus is like a pillar of your life, just as Buddha or Krishna might be.
The Lord says, “When the earth and all its people quake, it is I who hold its pillars firm”. (Psalm 75:3).
If you come to learn that people like mystic writer LOBSANG RAMPA have turned over a new page in life doubled-up. He was an occultist and one of his and is now a born-again Christian, then it is time man famous books which is now very infamous is ‘THE THIRD EYE’. I have read it three times over.
Before Mr Rampa came into the Christian fold, he apologised to the world for having deceived people with his writings and led them away from the path of righteousness.
I fellowship at the E. P. CHURCH OF GHANA at Tema. It is regarded as a renegade wing of the E.P.CHURCH. When they broke away, I was furious with them and called them good-for-nothing devil-inspired idiots.
Today, that is where I meet Jesus for a chat. And that is where my younger brother Edward Alomele, a latter-day convert, does business with Christ.
In fact, when churches split, it is only an opportunity for the word to spread further. So the two churches are now far apart and doing the work of God to spread the good news further and further. They need not be antagonistic to each other after all. Isn’t it?
And it came to pass that last Sunday when I walked into the synagogue I espied Diana Akiwumi sitting on the dais. Not sure if it was her, I looked out for her husband; they are almost always together.
And lo and behold, there was the Reverend Samuel Akiwumi perching beside his superstar wife. They were our guests. Today be today, I said.
As expected, Lady Diana led the praise and worship. It was an inspiring ecclesiastical blitz as the lady songbird with a musical call took the congregation through an explosive spiritual extravaganza. I was completely overwhelmed with joy and if it hadn’t been for my weight I would have executed the monkey-dance Kwame Korkorti taught me years ago.
When it came to delivering the word, it was no other than Evangelist Samuel Akiwumi. I never knew he was such a vibrant preacher man. He delivered the sermon with total conviction and power and the congregation nodded and nodded with satisfaction. Basing his sermon on Chronicles 2 Chapter 20, he urged us to rely exclusively on God in times of trouble.
After the service I cornered the Europe-bound duo and asked them about the AKIWUMI GOSPEL MINISTRIES.
This article was first published on Saturday, July 22, 1995
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If God grants us the grace to live long like our parents, I am of the firm conviction that we shall hear a lot of interesting things. Discipline in schools, especially at the Senior High School level, has become a hot topic for discussion in the country in recent times.
I recall Achimota School, a few years ago, being in the news for insisting that a Rasta-haired student, who had just gained admission, must cut his hair before being admitted. This generated a heated national debate, and the parents of the student decided to go to court. The Ministry of Education eventually intervened for the student to be admitted, and the court later ruled that he could not be prevented based on religious grounds. Interestingly, the teenager recently completed the school with no disciplinary issues — and on top of that, had 8 As.
A few days ago, a Minister stirred up another debate in the education space by announcing that regulations governing short hair in schools must be strictly enforced to ensure discipline and character formation. But I fail to see how cutting one’s hair short ensures morality.
In the past, students in second-cycle institutions were required to keep their hair short. Many of these boys later became men, completed universities, entered politics, and ended up in Parliament as Members of Parliament (MPs) representing their respective constituencies. At that time, the fashion in vogue among men was short hair, and in many cases, completely shaved heads, popularly called “Sakora.” One would therefore assume that these men would be morally upright.
Surprise, surprise! During the previous government, it came out that some MPs had dishonestly received double salaries. One then begins to wonder — what correlation, therefore, exists between short hair and right conduct? If short hair has anything to do with character formation, then something went very, very wrong somewhere.
Frankly, I fail to see the correlation between short hair and moral uprightness. I once lived in an area notorious for wee (marijuana) smoking, yet I never smoked wee. Character formation, in my opinion, depends largely on the individual — not on whether they have long or short hair.
What happens when a child is forced to pretend to be obedient and morally upright in school, only to go to university after three years in SHS? Even those of us who went through Sixth Form before university had our challenges — how much more those who spend only three years in SHS?
Some argue that in the army, soldiers cut their hair short and that’s why they are disciplined. I find this reasoning absurd because in countries like the United States, Canada, and across Europe, students do not cut their hair short, yet their societies are disciplined. They do not litter their streets, corruption is frowned upon, and their MPs do not take double salaries. That’s not to say they are angels, but on the whole, they eschew anti-social behaviour and are patriotic citizens.
A look at the Public Accounts Committee sittings proves my point beyond reasonable doubt. Most of the people engaged in misconduct had their hair cut short in various Senior High Schools, yet they turned out to be unpatriotic citizens.
I am sure that the man who a court of competent jurisdiction ruled had unlawfully taken GH¢51 million from the state of Ghana also observed the short-hair rule while in secondary school — and yet, he swindled the nation.
Food for thought. God bless.
NB: Change Kotoka International Airport to Kofi Baako International Airport.
BY LAUD KISSI-MENSAH
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