GNAT has its full meaning as the Ghana National Association of Teachers. GNAT is the first teacher labour union in Ghana. But as a teacher union, what are the roles of GNAT in teacher welfare and development in Ghana?
GNAT has been in existence for over 90 years not. In fact, GNAT is 95 years old and their membership keeps growing as well for reasons only teachers in Ghana can explain to the rest of the world.
In this article, I hope to bring you the roles of GNAT in teacher welfare and development in Ghana and ask the question of whether teachers are actually seeing the union play these roles year on year or it is only a cliche.
According to information we picked up from the association, it is mandated to sit in for the Ghanaian teacher, both its members and non-members with the government on many issues.
The Roles of GNAT in the welfare and development of teachers in Ghana are:
- Negotiate salaries and better conditions of service for members.
- Handle personal cases of members Eg. Wrongful Dismissal, Demotion
- Offer Legal Assistance to members in terms of challenges related to their work.
- Do special donations to members. Eg. flood victims, special ailment
- Give free cancer treatment to members. All expenses paid
- Do Continous Professional Development (CPD) for members. Eg. CTF Workshop, Nkabom Project.
- Offer our members’ Death/Retirement benefits
- Offer loans with affordable interest rates to our members Eg. Teachers Fund of GNAT
- Give our members yearly souvenirs among others
