Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has appealed to striking teacher unions to return to the classroom as government steps up engagements to resolve their outstanding concerns.
The Minister is meeting the leadership of the teacher unions alongside officials from the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD), the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and the Ghana Education Service (GES) to find a way forward.
The meeting, currently underway at the Ministry of Education, involves the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG).
Mr Iddrisu urged the unions to consider the impact of the industrial action on the academic calendar, which has only recently been restored 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 unions began the nationwide strike on Friday, September 25, 2026, resulting in widespread disruptions to teaching and learning, with reports from the Ashanti Region indicating that some schools have been forced to close due to teacher absenteeism.
At the heart of the dispute are three major issues the unions say remain unresolved despite repeated engagements and a September 24 deadline.
One of the key concerns is the delay in negotiating a new Collective Agreement. The previous agreement expired in June 2026, but negotiations for a replacement have yet to be concluded despite engagements with the FWSC.
The unions are also demanding the automatic placement of newly promoted teachers on their appropriate salary scales. They say two groups of teachers who passed promotion aptitude tests in December 2025 and February 2026 are still awaiting placement, with arrears dating back to January 2026. About 80,000 teachers are reportedly affected.
Another major concern is the non-implementation of the Deprived Area Allowance.
The unions have cited Section 17(2) of the 2024 Collective Agreement, which requires a review of the Deprived Area Report before negotiations on the allowance. They have 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 strike could undermine efforts to maintain the restored 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 said resolving the teachers’ concerns would require collaboration among the institutions involved, particularly the FWSC and CAGD.
“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.
Meanwhile, NAGRAT President Jacob Anaba has accused government of acting in bad faith.
He said the unions had made repeated efforts to engage government, but what he described as continued delays by the relevant institutions showed a lack of urgency in addressing the concerns of teachers.
The unions maintain that the strike is a response to what they describe as prolonged delays and failure to fulfil commitments made to teachers.
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