The Technical University Teachers Association of Ghana (TUTAG) chapter at Takoradi Technical University (TTU) says it will only call off its strike and return to the classroom after receiving a signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) from the Ministry of Education.
The chapter’s president, Prof. Frederick Boakye-Yiadom, said although the Education Ministry had agreed to the association’s demands during their last meeting, members needed a formal document confirming the agreement before they could suspend the industrial action.
Speaking to Citi News following the reopening of the semester at TTU, Prof. Boakye-Yiadom said the association was ready to resume teaching but required written assurances from the government to convince its members that their concerns had been addressed.
“We are dealing with technocrats. If you come without concrete document to prove to them that this is what the minister has said, Ghanaians don’t believe the politicians again, they are looking for either MOU from the Minister just as it has been done with the pre-tertiary teachers,” he said.
“We are ready to teach. I can confidently say that because we are losing contact hours, and it is not helping us,” he stated, adding that students and their parents were also bearing the cost of the prolonged disruption to the academic calendar.
Prof. Boakye-Yiadom noted that students who had returned to campus for the semester were spending money on accommodation and other expenses despite the interruption to academic activities. He warned that further delays could place additional financial pressure on parents when teaching eventually resumes.
TUTAG’s ongoing strike stems from concerns over unpaid remuneration for lecturers on post-retirement contracts, changes to agreed conditions and schemes of service, and a GTEC directive on PhD requirements for career progression.
