Ranking Member on the Education Committee, Peter Nortsu Kotoe, has said Parliament will accept proposals on three education bills presented to the House.
The bills, the Pre-Tertiary Education Bill; the Complementary Education Bill and the Regulatory Education Bill, were among bills presented to Parliament on Tuesday for deliberations and approval.
The Ranking Member on the Education Committee said the bills were published on Parliament’s website to enable for input by interest groups.
“What we have done as a committee is to consider the bill as presented by the Minister and make recommendations”, he stated.
He added that, although some interest groups have been engaged, deliberations on the Pre-Tertiary Education Bill are yet to be carried out.
But teacher unions have said they have not received copies of any of the three bills.
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Associaton of Teachers (GNAT), the Teachers and Education Workers Union (TEWU) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) are among the teacher unions raising concerns about the ongoing process to pass the bill.
The teacher unions are worried that, when passed, the bills will threaten their roles as teachers. They say the Pre-Tertiary Education Bill, for instance, will destroy all teacher unions.
Programs Officer at the Education and Professional Development Division of GNAT, Palham Oyiye, has said teacher organisations must be made a key part of the process to pass the bills.
He stated that although requests have been made since 2017 for copies, the bills have not reached any teacher organisation.
“We are calling on the ministry of education to come clear on the matter…We humbly request Parliament to suspend debates on these bills for broader consultations to be made on the matter,” he stated.
He further called on Parliament to put a stop to the debate on the bills and invite broader stakeholder consultation.