Month: August 2015

The Member of Parliament (MP) for Akatsi North, Mr Peter Nortsu-Kotoe, has advised parents and guardians to create security and a better future for themselves and their families by investing in the education of their children and wards.

Quality education, he stressed, did not depend solely on the output of teachers, but also on the support parents would give to their children in terms of providing books, stationery and other materials needed to enhance teaching and learning.
Inauguration

Mr Nortsu-Kotoe gave the advice at the inauguration of a new three classroom block for the New Ave Dzadzepe Evangelical Primary school, which was built with financial support from the USAID.

The inauguration coincided with a ceremony to cut the sod for the construction of another three-classroom block with a store, office, ICT centre and toilet facilities for the school, estimated at GH¢246,000 and being funded by the Akatsi North District Assembly.

The Akatsi North District Chief Executive, Mr James Gunu, said the creation of the district had really benefitted the people as a number of development projects had sprung up in the area.
Ashiagbor

He cited the construction of new school blocks at Kpove, Have, Zenu and Ashiagbor as examples, as well as other projects at the Ave-Dakpa Senior High School.

Mr Gunu advised parents and teachers of the school to eschew lateness and absenteeism, stressing that they should ensure the pupils studied very hard.

The District Director of Education, Alhaji Ahmed Imoro, called on parents to take the education of their children serioiuly.

He appealed for more school infrastructure in the area to accommodate more students and pupils.

Richard Quarshigah, a former Propaganda Secretary for the governing National Democratic Congress (NDC) and Member of Parliament for Keta has insisted that, to him, the current strikes in the labour front, are becoming “destructive.”

According to him, such actions put undue pressure on government and may force subsequent borrowing “which we all want to avoid as a country because it is not helping us.”

Doctors have laid down their tools to demand the provision of a document stating their conditions of service while the Government and Hospital Pharmacists Association (GHOSPA) have also joined a similar cause over what they say are discrepancies on their placement on the Single Spine Salary Structure.

Speaking on Eyewitness News on Friday, the Keta MP, Richard Quarshigah said “If the doctors genuinely have a certain demand, we think we should meet those demands but again let’s ask ourselves the question; the kind of demands that are being made are they really very justifiable, looking at our economy? Looking at the revenue that we generate and looking at other salary structures in the country as compared to what doctors take.”

“Is it very rational to make such demands at this time? Is it intended to put undue pressure on government because if such demands are met, other groups will also come in making demands and it will continue to pressure government to look for money elsewhere and this obviously will translate into borrowing which we want to avoid as a country.”

“But again, this whole thing of strike business to me is becoming destructive,” he added.

The University Teachers are also on strike over the delay in the payment of their book and research allowances.

President Mahama has said he will not succumb to pressures from the labour front to pay wages or allowances that have not been captured in the budget.

Meanwhile the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), Dr Kwabena Adusei Poku has said their strike is to agitate for their conditions of service to be captured in 2016 budget.

The NPP MP for Assin Central, Hon. Kennedy Agyapong, has said no government will be able to meet the astronomic demands of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) concerning its condition of service which they have presented to the government.

Speaking during ‘Badwam’, a morning current affairs programme on ‘Adom TV’, the MP was emphatic that the demands of the GMA was unrealistic and thus cannot be met by any government, be it an NDC government or an NPP one.

Kennedy Agyapong’s comments comes amidst a public outcry against the astronomical demands being made of the government by the GMA whose members are currently on strike and who have threatened to reign embloc.

While many believe the doctors deserve a better conditions of service, they are outraged first by how high their demands are, secondly at the fact that the doctors have decided to embark on strike at a time government was still negotiating with them and thirdly at the threat that they will resign embloc.

Many see the strike and the threat of resignation as a bullying tactics by the doctors which also smack of blackmail. For the first time, in spite of the very important role doctors play in the lives of Ghanaians, many are calling on the government not to yield to their demands.

Meanwhile, some Medical Doctors have refused to obey the directives of the GMA. They thus go to work every day and attend to patient. A senior doctor in one of the regional hospitals in the country (name withheld) who is a known NPP sympathizer Is said to have warned doctors working under him not to join the strike because they have a duty to attend to their patients.

Interestingly, yesterday, the NPP held a press conference at which it laid the blame of the strike at the door step of the government. Many see this claim as an attempt by the NPP to play to the gallery because the demands by the GMA is one which, as Kennedy Agyepong rightly said, cannot be met by any government.

Member of Parliament for Bosomtwe, is baffled at the attacks on the General Secretary of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) Dr Frank Serebuor for calling a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) an “idiot”.

According to Simon Osei-Mensah, insult is now synonymous to government communicators thus wonders why they were hurt when the GMA scribe only gave them a dose of their own medicine.

Dr. Serebuor has come under a barrage of attacks after he lashed out at a government communicator for accusing the GMA of declaring a strike to please their political pay masters.

Yeboah Boateng on Accra-based radio station, Hot FM on Friday, July 31, 2015, urged the striking doctors to to quit their jobs because “we are tired of them.”

He claimed that the GMA is “doing this to make sure their private hospitals can flourish,” and described their demands as outrageous.

In a rebuttal, a livid Dr Serebuor lashed out at Yeboah for insulting their integrity.

“Tell that idiot in the studio that he is not the one who decides what we should do. We decide for ourselves what we should do. If he is tired of us he can go anywhere and chew leaves which are also medicinal,” he fumed.

This has generated a lot of controversy with many demanding an unqualified apology from Dr. Serebuor which he has vehemently declined.

Speaking on Asempa FM’s Ekosii Sen programme Tuesday, the Bosomtwe MP said though the insults were harsh, he believes the NDC communicators deserve it.

He wondered why they are complaining when Dr. Serebuor only played their own tune to them.

“What kind of insults have we not endured from these NDC communicators, and today they are complaining because they were answered appropriately…wow, it really tells that every executioner fears to lie down facing the skies…,” he said.

Simon Osei-Mensah said the striking doctors cannot be blamed because government failed to address their concerns.

He said the incessant industrial strikes are symptoms of mismanagement of the economy by the Mahama-led administration.

“This is sickening; what is happening is due to the mismanagement, incompetence and total failure of the leadership of John Mahama” he stressed.

Hon. Osei-Mensah urged government to as a matter of urgency conclude negotiations on the conditions of service to prevent any chaos in the health sector.