The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has requested the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) to do a re-evaluation of the jobs of teachers before they are placed on the Single Spine Salary Structure, the Vice-President of NAGRAT, Mr Angel Carbonu, has stated. That, he said, was because non-teaching staff had been placed above teaching staff, although the job descriptions of teachers entailed a lot of activities. "How can you for instance place a bursar above a headmaster?” he asked, adding that apart from teaching, teachers assessed students, marked-examination scripts, undertake guidance and counselling sessions, among other things. Mr Carbonu said this at the opening of a two-day seminar on promotion interviews for NAGRAT members in the Greater Accra Region and noted that some circuit supervisors had also not been captured on the SSSS, and that all of those distortions needed to be corrected. He said the association was not under pressure to move on to the SSSS, adding that "we want to trash out all the problems we have with the salary stnicture before we are rolled-on to it". He said NAGRAT would not overlook the problems and then complain later by calling a strike, saying "colleagues if there is a delay it is because we want the right thing to be done". Mr Carbonu assured that there would be back pay no matter how long it took to get the distortions corrected. He urged the teachers to take, the training programme seriously since the Ghana Education Service Council had complained of the non-performance of graduate teachers during promotion interviews. He said if the teachers failed to take advantage of the promotion interviews, their juniors would overtake them. Mr Carbonu said the training was designed by the national leadership to equip them (graduate teachers) adequately ahead of those interviews. He said there was currently a transformation at the GES, especially with the introduction of the single spine, and that before one became a head of department the person would demonstrate enough skills and knowledge to assume such position. The Greater Accra Regional Chairman of NAGRAT, Mr Patrick Agboyibor, said the training programme had been held in the nine other regions and that the Greater Accra Region was the last. He said while panel members of promotion interviews complained of the poor performance of graduate teachers, the teachers on the other hand said the panel members deliberately failed them, explaining that "it is because of this problem that the training has been held". The Headmaster of St Thomas Aquinas Senior High School, Mr Francis Ahiafor, who chaired the function, said the teachers would soon be assuming leadership positions,, and so should take the training seriously. "We need the best from you. The future is in your hands," he said. Source: Daily Graphic