Meet Ayaaba Alale Gloria, A Trainee Teacher Who Composed A Poem About The Indefinite Strike By Colleges of Education Teaching Staff
Oral literature, in the form of storytelling, has traditionally been the most popular indigenous way of transmitting societal values, personal opinions, and educational predicaments among others.
Meet Ayaaba Alale Gloria who has composed a literary work (poem) to communicate her grief and dismay concerning the series of predicaments teacher trainees are undergoing in various colleges most especially the incessant strikes.
Two major staff associations at the 46 colleges of education across the country laid down their tools indefinitely over poor conditions of services.
The groups were the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG) and the Colleges of Education Non-Teaching Staff Association of Ghana (CENTSAG).
They claim to be disappointed at “the way Government has handled issues affecting the welfare of our members in the colleges of education over the years.”
Some of the issues include non-finalization of Conditions of Service (CoS) negotiations, unilateral determination of April 2023 by the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) as the effective date for placing First Degree Holders of CENTSAG on 17H on the SSSS, undue delay by the Ministry of Education in responding to their request for payment of compensation among others.
However, the Colleges of Education Non-Teaching Staff Association of Ghana (CENTSAG) returned to work a few days ago, leaving the teaching staff who are yet to receive productive results from the government.
The industrial action by the CETAG has had a greater diverse impact on the date slated for the level 200 trainees across the 46 public colleges of education to start their end-of-semester, per the course manual, every course tutor must fulfil about 85% to 90% of the course outline before a summative assessment can be carried out.
It is on this plight that Miss Ayaaba Alale Gloria, a 22-year-old student of English at the Gbewaa College of Education, level 200 has composed a poem to register her dissatisfaction on behalf of all trainees.
Miss Glory curated this heart-melting poem, using literary devices, the right diction, and great composition among others.
When asked about what inspired her to compose this intriguing literary work, she said; " The current predicament of teacher trainees inspired me to write the poem. Everything we heard about college before enrolling is not what we are experiencing. We toil to pay our fees, however, we don't receive the value for what we pay for. Meanwhile, we are denied access to certain privileges when we don't pay our fees. It is not modest that we can't hold our leaders accountable when we are being cheated. I composed the poem out of grief and dismay. Our leaders(government) have the solution to our problems but they won't help us. We can't defend ourselves because our voices are not listened to. Many people have the passion to teach but how teachers are treated demoralizes them. It is my desire and fervent prayer that government will take positive action on the plight of the Ghanaian teacher and teacher trainees.".
Read the lyrics of the poem below.
Dear teacher trainee...they lied to us
Innocently we believed and joined the bus
confided in us that college is the easy way out
Let us come clean, been here for a year and we keep a doubt
Sympathetically they assert, "college is for the financially incapacitated"
But you rob the same anticlockwise, hope you are not being misinterpreted
Dear teacher trainee, they lied to us
They adorned us in uniform to subdue us
Like dice, they keep playing
When it stumbles on a 6 it's a win for them
Any figure less we suffer the blame
Challenged not to challenge the status quo
Dare to be different, they eliminate your name
When we don't pay our fees, we get kicked out of class
We pay our fees, we pack home cos of strike
Don't tell us education is the key when you possess the key in your pocket