COVID-19 Vaccination: Teacher unions plead with members to get vaccinated

Some teacher unions in the country are urging their members to be involved in the advocacy to get Ghanaians to accept the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines.

This, they want the members to do by also taking their shots in the ongoing national vaccination exercise.

Leaders of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the University Teachers Association of Ghana (UTAG) say one of the surest ways of ensuring a safe teaching and learning environment amidst the pandemic is for teachers who interact mainly with the students to allow themselves to be vaccinated.

General Secretary of GNAT, Thomas Musah, in an interview admonished members to go for the jab if the window is opened for persons in the education sector.

“We are frontline workers as teachers. We meet children daily and our condition in the classroom has an effect on them. So if a teacher has it, he or she can infect about 30 to 60 students being taught in the class. So I want to encourage every teacher to go and have the vaccination done, so we can protect ourselves, the children, and the future of this country.”

On his part, the President of the University of Ghana chapter of UTAG,  Dr. Samuel Nkumbaan in his passionate appeal said: “Colleagues, I think it is important that we protect ourselves against the virus. So we want to encourage our members to take the vaccines whenever they are made available, so we can at least protect not just only our lives but the lives of our students and family members”.

The vaccination exercise which began last Monday is being carried out in segmentation based on vulnerabilities of the population.

Health workers, people with known underlying health conditions and security personnel are being covered under the first phase.

The second phase covers the three arms of government, other essential service providers, people above 60 years, the media, second cycle, and tertiary students and teachers.

Phase three involves other members of the population, except children under 16 and pregnant women.