NAGRAT leadership fumes over new academic calendar

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has threatened to direct its members to take breaks from work if the government does not commit to conversations to return the academic calendar to the trimester system.

This is in reaction to the newly released academic calendar for students under which form 2 and form 3 students under the single-track system began their academic year on November 1 and are scheduled to conclude on March 6.

Form two students under the double track system are expected to commence on March 8 and continue until May 9, leaving little room for teachers to have their well-deserved rest periods.

In an interview with Citi News, the President of NAGRAT, Angel Carbonu said the association may be forced to withdraw its members if government fails to return to the trimester system.

“They are more confused than anybody. Because I can assure you, the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service (GES), cannot tell you when the confusion will end. If we were serious, we should not admit the 2023/2024 first years into any double-track programme.

“Then we can say certainly that within three years, all schools will come back to normal if we can discipline ourselves and say we want to end the double track in the next three years.

“Let us not admit form ones into the double track, then I can say within the next three years in 2026, we will all end the double track for schools to run normally. But one thing I can assure everybody is that we will not continue to be working without rest periods. And a time will come when we take the rest period for ourselves, without resorting to management.” Angel Carbonu said.