GNAT says over 80,000 teachers await promotion as unions keep up indefinite strike

Pinned summary · as of 15:52

Public school teachers have been on strike since Friday, 25 September, over promotion arrears, a stalled collective agreement and the Deprived Area Allowance. GNAT president Prosper Tackie says more than 80,000 teachers are caught up in the promotion delays, and the Ministry of Education has asked the unions to call off the action.

What we know

• Three unions, GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG (the Ghana National Association of Teachers, the graduate teachers' body and the pre-tertiary teachers' association), started an open-ended strike across the country on Friday, 25 September 2026.
• The unions point to three grievances: promoted teachers who have not been placed on their new salary scales or paid arrears, delays in agreeing a new Collective Agreement, and the Deprived Area Allowance, which has not been implemented.
• On 31 August 2026 government and the unions struck a deal at a meeting that also involved the Controller and Accountant-General's Department. It promised that every promoted teacher would be moved onto the right salary scale before October, with a supplementary payroll for anyone missed, and that the move would happen automatically without forms or letters from teachers.
• The Ministry of Education has appealed to the striking teachers to return to school, but the unions have declined to call off the strike.
• GNAT salaries head Isaac Baah said the union will not end the strike on the strength of fresh promises and wants concrete implementation of what was agreed, with a clear payment timeline.
• Mr Baah criticised extra verification steps for promoted teachers. He argued that the Ghana Education Service (GES) organises the promotion exercise and forwards the list of those who passed to the Controller's office, so asking teachers for letters again only causes delay.
• According to GNAT, the teachers' current Collective Agreement ran out in June 2026. Mr Baah said the union sent in its proposals for a new one in August 2025, and GNAT has accused government of not treating the talks seriously.
• GNAT and government are due to meet again, with the Collective Agreement as the focus of the session.
• Mr Baah said the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Allowance, which is usually paid in September, has not been paid this year because the Collective Agreement talks are unfinished.
• Tackie put the number of teachers hit by the promotion delays at above 80,000. Roughly 58,000 of them hold higher ranks, and the remainder are on lower ranks.
• In Tackie's view, the Controller and Accountant-General's Department may have planned payments around the 58,000 alone and left out lower-rank teachers, which could explain why its numbers differ from those of the GES.
• According to Tackie, teachers had to write their promotion examinations in December because a government clearance was about to lapse with the budget year. Another batch captured in February expected results in March, but these did not arrive on schedule.
• Tackie stressed that a change of rank feeds into retirement benefits, so the delays weigh most heavily on teachers close to retirement.
• Tackie said GNAT brought up the pending promotions with President John Dramani Mahama on an occasion when he had been invited to open the union's PESCAN facility at the Sweden Ghana Medical Centre, and that Mahama recognised what the delays mean for teachers close to retirement.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Reports differ on the timing of the missing February-batch results: MyJoyOnline says they had not come by April, MyNewsGH says they did not arrive until April, and Chale News says teachers were still waiting by April.
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  EducateGhana reported that the unions issued an urgent notice dated 22 September setting a cut-off of noon on Thursday, 24 September for government, and warned that teachers might soon be beyond their control. It added that the unions link the Deprived Area Allowance to provisions of the 2024 Collective Agreement on reviewing the deprived areas, a process they say is unfinished. Only this publication carries these details.
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  EducateGhana reported that the 31 August communique fixed January 2026 as the start date for promoted teachers' substantive appointments, and that arrears would run from that month, citing the Ghana News Agency. It also said some teachers had already been placed on the right scales in the September exercise. These points appear in one report only.
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  According to EducateGhana, Ministry of Education spokesperson Hashmin Mohammed said government had made significant progress, that Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu was still talking to stakeholders, and that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Controller's office were expected to sit down with the unions. The ministry also voiced concern for the academic calendar after efforts to restore a September reporting cycle. The unions have not been reported responding to these points.
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  The Vaultz News reported Mr Baah saying GNAT could consider ending the strike if government put the 80,000 teachers still waiting onto their scales as agreed and firmly committed to paying the Deprived Area Allowance. He also said payroll checks already take place monthly, with designated school validators and help from circuit supervisors in confirming who is on staff, and that a saving clause keeps the expired agreement alive until a new one is signed. Only one report carries these claims.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that Mr Baah said the union would use the coming meeting to review the situation and decide its next steps on the strike, and that he found the government's offers on the Collective Agreement not worth discussing. It also reported that he said the union submitted its proposals on 12 August 2025. No other report has confirmed these points, and no government response appears.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that the December examinations relied on a clearance from the Finance Minister, and that Tackie said the union spoke to Mahama in April. Only this report gives those details.
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  Chale News reported that Tackie warned teachers close to retirement could permanently lose pension benefits if promotions are not processed in time. It also said the Ghana Education Service has set Monday, 5 October as its own deadline to sort out the payment problems, and that classrooms in Kumasi and elsewhere have been empty, with pupils there pleading for lessons to resume. No other report confirms these points.
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  Rainbow Radio Online reported that GNAT asked the National Labour Commission to throw out a complaint by a group called Innovative Teachers, which wants a place on the committee that negotiates conditions of service for public school teachers. Through its lawyers, Legal Alliance, GNAT argued that only the holder of the collective bargaining certificate may negotiate and that it is a union, not an employer. This account appears in one report only.
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  An opinion piece by Ellis Ferdinand on EducateGhana called the unions' latest ultimatum understandable and argued that the end-of-September date in the August deal should be the yardstick for government. This is the writer's own view.

Why it matters for Ghana

Tens of thousands of teachers are waiting on rank changes that determine their pay and, for those near retirement, their end-of-service benefits. The gap between 58,000 and more than 80,000 matters because a payment schedule built on the smaller number could leave many teachers unpaid. With the strike open-ended, pupils in public schools across the country face further disruption to lessons.