The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) is advocating for the Education Minister to be summoned before Parliament to address the recent power outages experienced in some schools across the country.
This demand comes after Accra Academy was disconnected from the national power grid due to arrears totaling around GHs480,000 owed to the Electricity Company of Ghana.
Speaking on Joy FM on Wednesday, the NAGRAT Vice President indicated that Accra Academy was not the only school affected.
Jacob Anaba mentioned Sunyani Senior High School and St. James Seminary in the Bono Region as institutions that have faced similar incidents this year including water challenges.
He believes that Parliament’s intervention could lead to improvements in teaching and learning conditions in second-cycle institutions.
“The Ministry has not been proactive. For us to be owing the third quarter and fourth quarter, and we are not even talking about this year, then there is a serious problem. I will urge Parliament to invite the Minister to Parliament to explain to the Ghanaian public what is actually happening for us to get understanding,” Mr Anaba explained on the Super Morning Show.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Education Ministry, Kwasi Kwarteng cast doubt on the claims that some Bono Region schools experience any outages.
“Jacob makes wild allegations about schools in Bono having been disconnected from the national grid for non-payment? I mean for me, I believe that NAGRAT is a very responsible institution, you don’t make claims on Joy FM which has national coverage without verification,” he said,
He also stated that discrepancies in the ECG’s accounting structure may have led to the disconnection of power at Accra Academy on Monday, February 19.
Mr Kwarteng explained that payments are made en masse at the national level and may not have been communicated to the local offices, causing the disconnection.
