Teachers confused, as meetings on controversial "insurance" end inconclusive

Every journalist likes a good story but some stories are so interesting they must be told.

One of those stories is about attempts by local representatives of teacher unions to explain what is turning out to be an interesting topic, "Special insurance for teachers"

The story is told of how most teachers woke up one morning, walked to their banks (which are usually GCB Bank),to their surprise found out GHC10 had been deducted form their salaries and it was going to be monthly affair; the purpose for these deductions, life insurance cover for them.

It turned out their respective unions had signed them on for these insurance covers, in the belief that it was in the interest of the teacher. Unfortunately for the unions, no teacher is a juvenile so you need their consent to sign them up to anything no matter how well intentioned.

So the roars went up in the various classrooms with some teachers resorting to social media to express their disgust at the move leaving union leaders hot and trying to justify their actions. Their justification, we agreed but had not given government the greenlight because we had not consulted the teachers.

To save face, the unions added their voices to that of the members and demanded a suspension to the deductions; government yielded and suspended the deduction.

This meant only one thing, the unions had to now go and speak to their members about the insurance policy and so they got to work.

It has not been an easy task, at least from what my friend teacher told me. Local union representatives are having to close meetings on the policy with the pledge to return with answers to basic questions.

The union representatives are going to the teachers with one clear message; he/she who is not interested should opt out. Funny, you thought? Exactly the thought of the teachers who are surprised they are being asked to opt out of something they never opted in. 

They are supposed to now go to the offices of the Accountant General with one message; opt me out of a policy I never signed onto. Interesting approach, isn't it? That is the situation the teachers are confronted with. 

My friend told me, it seemed that was the only thing their local representative knew and was supposed to tell them. According to my friend, when they feigned interest in the policy and started asking questions about documentation, maturity and collection, the union representative could not provide answers. 

So the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service, I have been told to ask one question; how does the insurance policy work?

The two outfits can also consider opting every teacher out and then going to the ground to explain the policy for interested teachers to opt in.

Until then, my friend teacher wants the money back. Refund please!