Unemployed graduates with disabilities are set to converge at Jubilee House today, August 19, demanding government action to address what they say is their continued exclusion from public-sector employment.
The Coalition of Unemployed Graduates with Disabilities says recent recruitment exercises have failed to provide meaningful opportunities for qualified persons with disabilities, despite the group submitting names of eligible graduates to government institutions.
The Coalition said 200 names were submitted to the Ghana Education Service (GES) ahead of its latest recruitment exercise, which involved about 7,000 positions.
It said none of the graduates on its list was recruited.
The group believes the outcome highlights gaps in the implementation of measures aimed at ensuring employment opportunities for persons with disabilities in the public sector.
At the centre of the Coalition’s demands is financial clearance from the Ministry of Finance to enable government institutions to recruit its members.
Its convenor, Gilbert Boateng Agyare, said the group is seeking between 400 and 500 financial clearances to facilitate the deployment of qualified graduates to various public institutions.
“We want the Finance Ministry to issue 400 to 500 financial clearances to help deploy our people to the various government institutions,” he said.
Mr Agyare said the failure to recruit any of the 200 graduates submitted to the GES had reinforced the group’s decision to take its concerns directly to the presidency.
“Recently, GES did a recruitment of about 7,000 people, and we submitted about 200 names to GES and nothing happened, and so we think that is repugnant,” he said.
The Coalition said its action is intended to draw President John Dramani Mahama’s attention to the difficulties faced by qualified graduates with disabilities who remain unemployed.
It is also demanding stronger enforcement of the legal provisions intended to promote the participation of persons with disabilities in public employment.
According to the group, securing the requested financial clearances would provide a pathway for its members to be recruited and deployed across government institutions.
