Teacher unions stay on strike after talks as Iddrisu sets 5 October data deadline

Pinned summary · as of 05:21

Three pre-tertiary teacher unions turned down an appeal from Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu to end their nationwide strike, after a meeting at the Ministry of Education in Accra on Monday, 28 September. The minister set out a plan on promotion data, salary arrears and a disputed allowance, but the unions said they want payments, not promises, before classes resume.

What we know

• Members of GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG have stayed away from classrooms since Friday, 25 September, after a deadline the unions gave the government for 24 September expired without a settlement.
• Reports from several places describe many public schools as deserted or empty of teachers since the action began.
• The unions say three matters remain open. The first is a new Collective Agreement, since the earlier one lapsed in June 2026. The second is placement on the proper salary scales, with arrears back to January 2026, for teachers who sat promotion tests in December 2025 and February 2026. The third is the Deprived Area Allowance for staff in remote or underserved communities.
• The unions had earlier accepted assurances that the promotion placements would be finished by the end of September. They say that pledge has not been fully honoured.
• Mr Iddrisu met the union leaders at the Ministry of Education on 28 September, in a meeting that also drew in the pay-negotiating FWSC (Fair Wages and Salaries Commission), the payroll office known as the CAGD (Controller and Accountant-General's Department) and, in some reports, the Ghana Education Service (GES). He asked the unions to suspend the strike while talks continue.
• The unions did not budge after the meeting. GNAT said its members would remain at home until arrears appear on their payslips and are paid into their accounts.
• The minister said the government has formed a validation committee, chaired by the ministry responsible for employment and labour relations, to check the data behind the 20% Deprived Area Allowance. He said the government still intends to begin paying it in January 2027, provided the validation is completed.
• According to Mr Iddrisu, the GES Director-General must hand the remaining data on promoted teachers to the CAGD by 4pm on Monday, 5 October. He added that details of as many as 29,000 promoted teachers have come in so far.
• The minister also said the September payroll had already been closed, so new grades will show up from October salaries, with any extra amounts paid as supplementary payments.
• The CAGD said it has settled 6,079 promotion cases, arrears included, against an expected total of 58,620. It said what remains depends on paperwork the GES has yet to send.
• Mr Iddrisu said his ministry has no power to negotiate pay, a role the law gives to the FWSC, and that the CAGD also has a part to play.
• The minister argued that the academic calendar has only recently been put back on a September-to-July cycle, and warned that a long strike could undo that progress.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Reports differ on how many teachers are affected by the placement problem. Onua Online quoted the unions as pressing for about 8,000 teachers to be put on the payroll, while MyJoyOnline reported the unions as saying about 80,000 are affected.
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  Reports give different dates for the FWSC's next round of talks with the unions. MyJoyOnline, YEN.com.gh and Rainbow Radio Online said Tuesday, 29 September, whereas Citi Newsroom said 6 October and EducateGhana said the meeting could stretch to that date.
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  Citi Newsroom reported that the Education Ministry told the GES to submit the promotion data by the end of the week, which does not match the 5 October deadline reported elsewhere.
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  Rainbow Radio Online said the negotiations on a new collective agreement were finished but that the government had not put the result into effect. MyJoyOnline and The Vaultz News described the negotiations as unresolved.
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  NAGRAT charged the government with bad faith, and its president, Jacob Anaba, said repeated delays by the institutions involved showed a lack of urgency. This was reported by MyJoyOnline alone, and no government response to the accusation was included.
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  MyJoyOnline reported that GNAT's Isaac Baah asked for written proof of the January 2027 allowance commitment and said the unions might reconsider if given a written timeline, such as concluding negotiations by mid or late October. This has not been confirmed by other reports.
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  MyJoyOnline also reported that some schools in the Ashanti Region closed entirely because teachers were absent; no other report has confirmed this.

Why it matters for Ghana

Classes are being missed in public basic and secondary schools nationwide, which hits pupils and families who cannot turn to private tuition. The minister has pointed out that the September-to-July calendar was only recently restored, so a long stoppage puts that gain at risk. For teachers, the unresolved points are money: promotion arrears, a pay agreement and a rural allowance. The next steps to watch are the FWSC talks and the 5 October data deadline.