Minister of Energy
The Ministry of Education has been granted financial clearance to employ a total of 27,367 staff for the pre-tertiary sector. The number is made up of 16,500 newly trained teachers, 6,500 graduate teachers, 3,232 replacement teachers and 1,135 non-teaching staff.
Addressing a press conference yesterday, the Minister of Education, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, said this would bring to 93,724 the total number of staff who have been recruited into the pre-tertiary sector since the Akufo-Addo government took over in 2017.
Arrears paid
The Minister added that teachers who were recently engaged have been paid all their salary arrears. This is a departure from the three months’ pay policy under the previous government, where it took many months, and in some cases years, for teachers to receive their first salaries.
He also explained that teachers who were promoted in April 2020 have had the necessary adjustments made to their salaries, adding that this was reflected in their May 2020 salaries.
Post-retirement contracts
The Minister further disclosed that the government has announced new rules to guide post-retirement contracts for academic staff at the country’s public universities.
He stated that under the new regulations, post-retirement contracts in all public universities shall be guided by a set of rules.
Mandatory retirement for academic staff of public universities shall continue to be 60 years, in line with constitutional provisions.
Throwing more light on the rules, he stated, “Professorial grade staff i.e. Associate Professors and Professors shall be eligible for post-retirement contracts until the age of 70. The initial contract shall be for five years up to the age of 65, and then, afterwards, contracts shall be offered on a 2+2+1 basis, subject to need and good health.”
Again, he said senior lecturers shall be eligible for post-retirement contract on a 2+2+1 basis only up to the age of 65, subject to need and good health.
“Specific provision must be made for compensation for all staff on post-retirement contract. Such staff shall be clearly designated and accounted for separately as contract staff in the annual budget of the institution,” he added.
Explaining the rationale behind this, the Minister stated that it has become particularly necessary as part of measures to bolster and maintain a critical mass of key academic staff to support the anticipated significant increase in tertiary enrolment as a consequence of the free Senior High School programme.
To this end, he revealed, the National Council of Tertiary Education (NCTE) has been tasked to develop and deploy a mechanism for monitoring output in those areas following the implementation of the new regime for post-retirement contracts.
