CAPCOE appeals to GES to upgrade in-service teachers ranks

Mr Richard Kwashie Kovey, the Convenor for the Campaign Against Privatisation and Commercialisation of Education (CAPCOE), has appealed to the Ghana Education Service (GES), to promote diploma-in-service teachers who have completed degree programmes to their deserving positions.Mr Kovey said the denial of some teachers who had completed three-semester degree top-up programmes from being upgraded to the rank of principal superintendent was worrying.In an interview with the Ghana News Agency (GNA), he explained that prior to upgrading of Colleges of Education to degree awarding institutions, the teacher unions and GES had entered into an agreement with the University of Cape Coast to offer admission to in-service teachers with diplomas, to undertake degree programmes so they could meet the new requirement for employment in the Service.He said it was also a long-standing agreement that teachers returning from further studies be promoted to the rank of principal superintendent as a starting point for holde rs of degrees in GES-approved courses.Mr Kovey stated that, 'it is surprising to note that after the teachers successfully completed their degree programmes under the agreement and were awarded certificates, district, municipal, and metropolitan directors of education are turning down their request to be upgraded in rank to principal superintendent, which is the entry point for degree holders in the GES'.He said the GES recently opened the portal for recruitment of the first batch of four-year degree graduates from Colleges of Education into the service, adding that the recruits would be placed on the rank of principal superintendent, which automatically put them ahead of their in-service colleagues who graduated with the same qualification in 2023 and are awaiting upgrading.He stated that CAPCOE and all partners involved considered this development as unfortunate and unfair to the affected teachers, stressing that the development had the tendency of killing the passion with which these teachers had wor ked all these years under very deplorable conditions.'We request that the list of teachers who enrolled on the three-semester top-up programme from the University of Cape Coast, as well as those who obtained their degrees from other recognised universities be collated and placed automatically on the rank of principal superintendent for industrial peace ahead of the new entrants,' Mr Kovey said.Source: Ghana News Agency