Insurance policy deductions: Quickly pick exit forms if uninterested – NAGRAT to teachers

The leadership of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) is urging its members to quickly pick up the forms needed to exit the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) compulsory insurance package if they are uninterested.

After some protests from teachers, the GES, on Thursday, said teachers who were put on the programme have up to the end of August to pick, fill and submit an exit form to opt-out of the policy.

Speaking on Eyewitness News, Mr. Carbonu, however, warned that the Association will not take it lightly if the deductions from teachers who have opted out continue.

“I want to use this opportunity to encourage all teachers who are not interested in the policy to go for the exit form and withdraw from the policy. They can keep the photocopy of the form that they have filled and send the others to either their NAGRAT or a SSNIT office.”

“We had informed our members from last year till now that all those not interested in the SIC-GES life insurance scheme should take advantage of the withdrawal from which can be accessed from any SIC Life office nationwide. From the information I am gathering, about 40, 000 took those forms indicating their decision to opt-out. Unfortunately, when they were mechanizing teachers for payment, they also mechanized those 40, 000 teachers who decided to opt-out indicating that they had their own principles.”

NAGRAT had earlier threatened to strike over a GHc10 compulsory deduction from salaries of members for insurance purposes.

In 2018, teachers in public basic and senior high schools across the country complained about a deduction of Gh¢10 from their salaries through the Controller and Accountant Generals Department (CAGD) for the insurance policy.

This is the second time GES has temporarily suspended its insurance policy with SIC for public school teachers across the country.

The suspension is expected to be lifted at the end of August.

It is unclear the immediate reaction of teachers concerning the development as some of them rejected an earlier suggestion that they should request to opt-out of the programme before they are taken off it, although they did not request to join it in the first place.