BACKGROUND
On Monday 14th March 2022, Social Media, television and radio were dominated by discussions of the content of a letter written to Metropolitan, Municipal and District Directors of Education, as well as all Heads of Senior High Schools in the Western Region of Ghana, by the Western Regional Director of Education, Felicia Agyeibea Okai (Mrs). The letter dated 11th March 2022 with reference number GES/WRG.50/VOL.111/52″ and headed “PAYMENT OF RENT FOR OCCUPYING SCHOOL/ GOVERNMENT BUNGALOW,” directed that all teachers and staff occupying government bungalows should pay 10% of their basic monthly salary as rent with effect from 1st March, 2022. The letter further directed all Heads of School to ”also ensure all arrears owed are collected to avoid audit issues.” What seemed to have yanked the Director out of her seat to issue this directive was a so called Ministry of Finance Circular referenced 133385/05/06NTR CAGD of 15th May, 2006.
REACTIONS
My face puckered as I scrolled through the sentences in the Director’s letter. My initial reaction was to view her directive as “a hallucination by a novice, yet an overzealous Director.” Many questions hazarded my mind regarding the awkward and reckless directive. These included:
1. How long has Mrs. Felicia Agyeibea Okai been a Regional Director of Education? I believe she must have just spent not more than three years at her post.
2. Did Mrs. Felicia Agyeibea Okai consult her boss, the Director General of the GES, to find out what the situations were regarding that sixteen year old circular flagged by Auditors to her before issuing the directive?
3. Did she find out why occupants of school bungalows have not been paying rent since that circular was issued in May 2006?
4. Did Mrs. Felicia Agyeibea Okai consult her predecessor Mr. Akuffo, her colleague Regional Directors either by phone calls or on their Conference of Directors of Education (CODE) WhatsApp or Mega platform to find out what was pertaining in the remaining 15 regions?
5. Did she speak with her CODE President on the matter before issuing out her directive?
I believe the answers to all the above questions are in the negative, and that brings me to the next question.
6. Felicia Agyeibea Okai’s directive has effect only within her jurisdiction, Western Region, since no other Regional Director had issued a similar directive. Was the Director then implying that only teachers under her jurisdiction in Western Region should pay rent with accrued arrears while teachers in other regions enjoy free accommodation?
My opinion is that, the only authority clothed with the power to issue a directive cutting across the sixteen regions of Ghana on the payment of rent is the Director General of the GES, not a hallucinating overzealous Regional Director.
REACTIONS
In the ensuing discussions on Radio and Television, the Presidents of NAGRAT and the Ghana Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Angel Carbonu and Perpetual Ofori-Ampofo respectively, gave their perspectives on the directive when they were called by the hosts of those stations.
My utter disappointment was the loud silence of the Director General, or his other senior ranking officials at Headquarters on the issue. Did they decline to speak to the media on the issue for fear of contradicting and thus embarrassing the erring Director, or the media houses shied away from asking them to speak on the matter? And did the Western Regional Director too refuse to speak to the media on the issue, or the media again failed to let teachers hear her speak to the issue?
GENESIS OF THE LETTER ON RENT PAYMENT
I vividly recount that the time this circular was issued in May 2006, I was privileged to be the President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) – GHANA. I also know that the Deputy Director General of the GES in charge of Management Services, Mr. Anthony Boateng, was the Assistant Secretary of the Ghana Education Service Council at the time that this circular was issued. Mr. Boateng has a huge generational memory about the GES, its Governing Council and their decisions. If consulted by Felicia Agyeibea Okai, Mr. Anthony Boateng would have educated her on the matter.
As President of an association whose members were mostly affected by the circular, we engaged the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Finance on the matter in 2006.
The explanation we were given was that, it was not the empty rooms of the bungalows that were to attract the 10% of the occupant’s basic monthly salary. The bungalows were to be “soft furnished” meaning they must have some basic items provided by government to make the accommodation complete and to attract the 10% basic salary as rent. These included:
1. Curtains
2. Sitting room furniture
3. Beds
4. Mattresses among other things.
In addition, government was to be responsible for the renovation of the bungalows and
replacement of the soft furnishings any time their conditions deteriorated.
Since that circular, I had not seen any bungalow soft furnished and, or renovated by Government in Mfantsipim School where I worked for twenty two years from 1990 to 2012 before moving out on transfer to head a school. The same applied to other schools. Let anyone just visit any school and take a look at the bungalows. They are so miserably dilapidated that one wonders if they are being inhabited. The responsibility of renovating the bungalows had been Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and Old Students Associations, while soft furnishings had been, and continues to be, done by individual teachers. PTAs and Old Student Associations those days also rented and paid for accommodation in town close to the schools for teachers with additional responsibilities who could not get accommodation on campus. Such teachers were called upon for duty at any time.
It must be noted that, even with these conditions of soft furnishings and renovations fulfilled, some categories of teachers assigned additional responsibilities, and some categories of non teaching staff were exempt from payment of rent in line with existing Collective Agreements between the GES and Teacher Unions. These exempted officials included, and still include Heads of School, Assistant Heads, Senior Housemasters, Housemasters and Guidance and Counselling Coordinators, due to the special additional responsibilities they carry besides their normal duties as subject teachers specified in their appointment letters. No teacher is ever appointed by GES as Housemaster or Senior Housemaster.
The Collective Agreements of 2009 and 2020 between the GES and Teacher Unions thus reaffirmed the exemption of these additional responsibility holders from rent payment as contained in the agreement existing in 2006. Their presence on school campus is always needed for the smooth running of schools for effective teaching and learning.
The presence of Senior Housemasters and Housemasters for instance on campus is always necessary for effective supervision at the dormitories and studies in the evenings. A housemaster and the school driver are also needed to rush students to hospitals timely sometimes in the night when they are suddenly taken ill.
The most recent Collective Agreement for teaching staff within the GES was signed by the Minister of Education Hon. Matthew Opoku Prempeh, witnessed by Director General of GES, Prof. Kwasi Opoku Amankwa and Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, Dr. Edward Kwapong, on behalf of Government; and by General Secretary of GNAT, Mr. Thomas T. Musah, witnessed by Mr. Eric A. Carbonu and Mr. King Ali Awudu, Presidents of NAGRAT and CCT respectively.
Section 19.0 at page 42 of this agreement on staff accommodation stipulates that “Accommodation may be provided to the following category of staff: Headmasters, Assistant Headmasters, Senior Housemasters, Housemasters, Principals, Vice Principals, Headteachers, Assistant Headteachers, Frontline Deputy Directors, and Guidance and Counselling Officers and Chaplains and Imams in Second Cycle Schools.”
Is Mrs. Felicia Agyeibea Okai, a Director in charge of a whole region, ignorant of the Collective Agreement that binds her teachers and their Employer? If she is ignorant about this agreement, that’s the more reason for her to consult her bosses for advice rather than issuing that reckless letter embarrassing everybody including herself and the Management of the GES.
The most contagious thing in life is example. Mrs. Felicia Agyeibea Okai should, therefore, set the example by paying her rent with all arrears and present her receipts for verification by teachers in the Western Region to encourage her teachers to follow. She can then go ahead to eject from the dilapidated bungalows, Heads of School, Senior Housemasters and Housemasters who fail to pay and assume their responsibilities in their respective schools.
ADENDUM:
Why is it that Directors of Central and Western Regions have always come from other regions? Almost all the Central Regional Directors in recent times, have been Ashantis or have marital affiliations with Ashanti Region. Does it mean there are no qualified indigenes of Central Region to be appointed as Regional Directors? Recently, an Assistant Headmistress from Saint Monica’s SHS, Ashanti Manpong, who is an Ashanti, was again brought to head Holy Child School, Cape Coast, while the incumbent Assistant Headmistress, an old student and a Catholic, is equally qualified.
We need explanation for these appointments.
Dated Tuesday 15th March 2022
