The Ghana National Council of Private Schools (GNACOPS) has bounced against plans by National Board of Small Scale Industries (NBSSI) to pay stimulus packages directly to private school teachers.
According to the council, that was not the original agreement when they applied for the Covid-19 soft loan.
The outbreak of the Covid-19 in Ghana, in March this year, which led to the closing down of Schools and businesses evoked the rolling out of some social interventions ( stimulus packages) by government for micro, small and medium enterprises that had been hit hard by the pandemic. In that case, private schools also applied to benefit from the package since they were not exempted.
Concerning the requirements for them to access the loan, the board of NBSSI is now demanding payment vouchers of teachers in order to effect direct payment to them which happens not to be the initial agreement.
In an interview with City News, monitored by HonestyNewsGh on Thursday, the Head of Human Resources for GNACOPS, Prince Entsie said the loan should be given to the schools as originally scheduled.
He makes a case that the loans are not intended for the sole purpose of paying teaching staff but also for maintenance and preparation towards the reopening of schools.
“When we gave them the update from NBSSI that they say the money now is going to be paid directly to the teachers, they said how can they say that because from the onset we haven’t had any discussion like that. It’s the school that is accessing this loan, not the teacher.”
“The money should be given to the schools so that they can equally give a share to the teachers to cater for themselves and then they can also use part of the money to put things in order so that when schools reopen they will be in [good] shape,” he argued.
The Deputy Director of State Protocol, Philip Kofi Aning, who received the petition from GNACOPS on behalf of the President, assured the Council that their concerns would be directed to the appropriate quarters for redress.
