Protect the school calendar while we address your concerns – Haruna Iddrisu appeals to striking teachers

Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu is appealing to striking teacher unions to return to the classroom as he engages their leadership alongside the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD), the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and the Ghana Education Service (GES).

The Minister said the unions must protect the school calendar, which has only recently returned to the September-to-July cycle.

“I extend a warm welcome to the leadership of our various teacher unions who have publicly and justifiably declared a strike action,” he said.

“But to use this opportunity as their employer to persuade them to keep the academic calendar smooth sailing and smooth running whilst we look into the merits of their legitimate issues and concerns,” he added.

The meeting, which is currently underway at the Ministry of Education, brought together the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG).

The strike, which began on Friday, September 25, 2026, has emptied classrooms nationwide, with reports from the Ashanti Region indicating that some schools have been forced to close entirely due to teacher absenteeism.

The strike hinges on three critical issues that the unions say have been left unresolved despite repeated engagements and a formal deadline of September 24, 2026.

The first is the delay in negotiating a new Collective Agreement.

The existing agreement expired in June 2026, and negotiations for a replacement, which should have been completed by June, remain outstanding despite several engagements with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.

The second is the failure to automatically place newly promoted teachers on their appropriate salary scales. The unions say two cohorts of teachers who passed promotion aptitude tests in December 2025 and February 2026 are yet to be placed on their new scales, with arrears dating back to January 2026.

About 80,000 teachers are affected.

The third is the non-implementation of the Deprived Area Allowance. The unions cite Section 17(2) of the 2024 Collective Agreement, which requires a review of the Deprived Area Report before negotiations on the allowance. They also referenced a 2024 National Labour Commission ruling and a directive by President John Dramani Mahama for a 20% basic-salary allowance for teachers in hard-to-reach areas.

Press Secretary and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Hasmin Mohammed, said the Ministry was deeply concerned about the strike’s impact on the academic calendar.

“It took the Honourable Minister and then that of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service to be able to restore sanity to the academic calendar,” he said.

“For the first time, we are having our Ghanaian school children from KG to university all reporting in this September. So that tells you that we have been able to reverse the academic calendar,” he added.

He explained that the Education Ministry alone cannot resolve the issues, as the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department are also central to the payment and placement processes.

“It is our expectation that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and then the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) will be able to engage the teacher unions so that collectively we can find a solution to this issue,” he said.

The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) has accused the government of acting in bad faith. NAGRAT President Jacob Anaba said the unions had made sustained efforts to engage the government, but continued delays by the relevant institutions demonstrated a lack of urgency in addressing teachers’ concerns.

The unions have maintained that their action is a direct response to what they describe as prolonged delays and failure to honour commitments made to teachers.