Teacher unions reject minister's appeal and stay on strike as GES warns of calendar risk

Pinned summary · as of 04:54

Public school teachers represented by GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG were still out of class on Tuesday, 29 September, four days into an indefinite nationwide strike. Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu urged them on Monday to suspend the action while talks continue, and the Ghana Education Service (GES) repeated the plea, but the unions declined and say they want to see money in accounts first.

What we know

• The three teacher unions began their open-ended strike across the country on Friday, 25 September 2026, after a government deadline of midday on 24 September lapsed without the outcome they wanted.
• The unions list three main grievances: a new collective agreement that is late, promotions that have not been reflected in pay scales, with arrears back-dated to January 2026, and a Deprived Area Allowance that has not been introduced.
• Mr Iddrisu met union leaders in Accra on Monday, 28 September, and asked them to call off the strike while negotiations run their course. GES Director-General Professor Ernest Kofi Davis backed that request on Tuesday.
• The unions rejected the appeal. Isaac Baah of GNAT said teachers would stay at home until the promised adjustments and arrears appear on pay slips and in bank accounts, adding that the union wants action rather than promises.
• The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission is due to sit with the unions on Tuesday, 6 October to discuss the collective agreement and conditions of service.
• The government says it still intends to introduce a 20% allowance for rural deprived areas from January 2027, once data has been validated. A panel chaired by the Employment and Labour Minister has been created to carry out that check.
• According to Mr Iddrisu, information on nearly 80,000 affected teachers must be submitted and checked, the ministry currently holds records covering up to 29,000 for arrears, and September salaries were already processed. He said the Controller and Accountant-General would apply the new grades from October.
• The GES has until 4pm on Monday, 5 October to hand over the input forms and supporting papers, such as promotion letters, that payroll staff need before pay for promoted teachers can be processed.
• Lessons have stopped in many schools. Pupils in parts of the Eastern Region arrived to find locked classrooms and no teachers, and classes in the Upper West Region are reported to be largely without teaching.
• The Minority in Parliament, speaking through Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, called for urgent action and said Monday's meeting produced no fresh settlement.
• Professor Davis said pupils across the system reported to school within September this year for the first time in about six years, and warned that the strike puts that stable calendar at risk.

What's disputed / unconfirmed

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  Isaac Baah of GNAT told the Daily Guide Network that the meeting yielded no commitments beyond earlier assurances. Mr Iddrisu, as reported by MyJoyOnline and Opemsuo 104.7, described the talks as open and frank and set out timelines, so the two sides portray the outcome differently.
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  The Daily Guide Network, citing the Education Ministry, says the GES Director-General must send promotion data to the Controller by the end of the week; other reports give the deadline as 4pm on Monday, 5 October, so the reports do not fully match.
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  Starr FM reports that NAGRAT president Jacob Anaba said the Controller and Accountant-General sent a letter on the night of the meeting that shifted blame and showed bad faith. Only Starr FM carries this, and no response from the Controller's office is included.
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  Starr FM says a government minister put at 11,300 the teachers who would qualify for the deprived-area payment, a figure that appears in no other report and is separate from the 29,000 arrears records cited by Mr Iddrisu.
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  Citi Newsroom reports concerns among final-year pupils and parents at one junior high in the Upper West Region about preparation for the 2026 BECE. No other report describes conditions in that region.

Why it matters for Ghana

Households that cannot pay for private schooling have no alternative while public classrooms stay closed, and final-year pupils preparing for the 2026 BECE are losing teaching time, according to students in the Upper West Region. The stoppage also threatens a school year that the GES says opened on schedule for the first time in about six years. Whether teachers in Accra, Koforidua, Wa and elsewhere return depends on how quickly the promised money reaches their accounts.