Govt tables new proposals to teachers

A High-Level meeting yesterday between the government and pre-tertiary teacher unions with a view to getting them to call off their strike ended inconclusively.

This is in spite of new and improved proposals tabled by the government to the unions.

The unions are, thus, expected to meet on Monday to consider the proposals of the government.

The government team included the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu; the Minister of Finance, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson; the Minister of Employment and Job Creation, Emmanuel Kwadwo Agyekum; the Chief Executive Officer of the FWSC, Dr George Smith-Graham, and the Controller and Accountant General, Kwasi Agyei.

The unions were represented by the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Musah; the President of the Pre-tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG), King Awudu Ali, and the Deputy General Secretary of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Rene Senyo Kwame-Korkor.

Addressing the media after the meeting, Mr Iddrisu confirmed that the government team had tabled “what I will call an improvement to the teacher unions demands”.

He said the unions’ demands were centred on three core issues.

“The government team makes a commitment to the teacher unions and to all teachers that we will honour our commitment to the new grades for all promoted teachers on or before 30th October 2026.

“However, from Monday, the Controller and Accountant General will validate, as he is already validating data of up to 51,000 persons, and a supplementary payment schedule will be provided for that category and the other categories will have it as part of their salaries in October,” he said.

Mr Iddrisu gave an assurance that the government would not renege on that pledge.

“We will honour that and use that to persuade our teachers to honour themselves from Monday by considering calling off the industrial action,” he said.

The second issue that was tabled for discussion and negotiation, he said, had to do with a manifesto pledge of the NDC government and President John Mahama to pay 20 per cent deprived area allowance to deserving teachers.

“We need an understanding as to who qualifies to benefit from it and, for our purposes, which area in Ghana will qualify to be declared as rural deprived and which category of teachers will benefit from it.

“Some data already exists. A committee was put in place which included representatives of our teacher unions and the Ghana Statistical Service to validate and provide a road map for the implementation of the 20 per cent,” he said.

The Education Minister said that issue remained a manifesto commitment that “we will honour as government, but we need a defined road map and framework”.

He said takeholders needed to work out a mechanism that did not allow for its abuse, hence the formation of the committee.

The third issue, Mr Iddrisu explained, was the expired conditions of service of teachers and that the unions would return on Tuesday to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission “for negotiation of their expired conditions of service or collective agreement”.

“The Chief Executive of Fair Wages assures me that he has accordingly conveyed an invitation to the unions to attend same for them to negotiate,” he said and expressed the hope that it would not go beyond a week.

The Education Minister thanked the leadership. “I understand that they have to go back to their constituents and discuss this proposal of the government,” Mr Iddrisu said.

He renewed his appeal to the unions to call off their industrial action, emphasising the need to stabilise the academic calendar after restoring it to September.

Also addressing the press, Mr Musah confirmed that issues were discussed, but there was no conclusion on them.

“New proposals have been given to the unions to go and have a look at and get back to them next week Monday,” he said.

For his part, Mr Ali said the strike action remained in force and that they would revert to the government team on Monday on the proposals on the table.

“We are going to do the necessary consultations and analyse the various proposals the government has made and then revert on Monday.

But until then, the teachers should rest assured that the strike action is in force,” he stressed.