The government has called on the pre-tertiary teacher unions to call off their industrial action as negotiations continue to address their issues.
The Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, made the appeal on behalf of the government at a meeting with the unions in Accra yesterday, following their declaration of a strike last Friday.
Mr Iddrisu, after the meeting, told the media that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission would meet with the unions on Tuesday to “continue negotiations on their collective agreement and conditions of service”.
Issues
Three teacher unions are on strike nationwide for what they describe as the government’s failure to resolve outstanding issues concerning the payment of promotion allowances and arrears owed to teachers.
In a joint statement dated September 25, 2026 the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) cited three major concerns, the delay in negotiating a new Collective Agreement, the failure to automatically place newly promoted teachers on the appropriate salary scales and the non-implementation of the Deprived Area Allowance.
The unions said the existing Collective Agreement had expired, while negotiations for a new agreement, which they said should have been completed by June 2026, remained outstanding.
They said the matter had been raised with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) several times, but was yet to be resolved.
The teacher unions are also demanding the automatic placement of teachers who successfully passed the promotion examinations in December 2025 and February 2026 onto their respective salary scales, including payment of arrears effective January 2026.
Progress
Updating the unions on progress made so far, Mr Iddrisu said “We have accordingly constituted a validation committee to be chaired by the Minister of Employment and Labour to validate data on government commitment to implement the 20 per cent rural deprive allowance.”
“Be assured that the government of President Mahama remains committed to rolling out the rural deprive 20 per cent allowance effective January 2027, subject to the validation of the data and a defined roadmap to which the teacher union will be adequately represented,” he added.
On the issue of new grade of a salary after promotion, the Minister of Education said the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service (GES) would from today up to Monday 4p.m. work with the Controller and Accountant General to update data to enable the processing of salaries on the new grade.
Extra work
Mr Iddrisu said the Director-General of GES had been tasked to work even during the weekend to ensure that data on the nearly 80,000 affected teachers could be submitted and validated.
Currently, the ministry has data of up to 29,000 for the arrears, but salaries have already been processed for September.
“We can’t walk back the process. So the commitment of the Controller and Accountant General will be to action this for October. And if there is any supplementary areas arising out of it, he will honour same,” he said.
Mr Iddrisu said the government team led by the Minister for Employment and Labour, assisted by the Minister for Education and representative and Chief Executive of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the Controller and Accountant General and the Director-General of GES, have engaged in very open and frank deliberations with the teacher unions over their industrial action.
Unions adamant
However, the unions are adamant in their action, saying that they want concrete evidence of what had been done so far before they could call off their industrial action.
Also addressing the media after meeting the government officials, the Head of Salaries at GNAT, Isaac Nii Baah, said “it has been the old story of promises upon promises”
“Where we have reached at the moment, we are not taking promises.
We want action,” he said.
“Our teachers should continue to stay at home until we see something concrete, until we see the salaries, arrears reflecting on our pay slips and credit to our accounts,” the GNAT executive said.
The Vice-President of PRETAG, Addokwei Ayikwei Awulley, said there had not been any headway when it came to the three issues.
“The issue about promotions they are giving new timelines and then issues about deprived areas allowance, there is no headway,” he said.
He assured the rank and file that all the grievances had been put forward, and that they would be given further instructions after reaching a settlement.
Credit: Graphic Online
