Government Must Do More Than Schedule Meetings

The Ministry of Education will sit down with the three teacher unions today. It is a meeting that should never have been necessary, and one whose outcome, if the government’s track record is any guide, will likely fall short of what Ghana’s teachers deserve.

The facts are straightforward. GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG declared a nationwide strike effective last Friday after the government missed again a deadline it had set for itself.

This is not a sudden crisis. In August, the same unions threatened strike action over the same promotion-placement issue. Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu met them, promises were made, and a September deadline was set. That deadline has now come and gone. The teachers are not being unreasonable. They are being ignored.

Consider what the government actually promised. In August, the Ghana Education Service was to supply the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department with data to complete the placements of teachers who passed promotion exams in December 2025 and February 2026. Arrears were to be paid from January 2026. It is now nearly October. The teachers have not been placed. The arrears have not been paid.

Then there is the Collective Agreement. The existing one expired, and negotiations for a replacement should have concluded by June 2026. They have not even begun in earnest, despite repeated engagements with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission. And the Deprived Area Allowance, mandated under the 2024 agreement and reinforced by a presidential directive, remains unpaid.

The unions have described the situation accurately: “widespread disaffection, anger, and disillusionment” among teachers who have watched promise after promise evaporate.

A government that reacts, not acts

Now comes Monday’s meeting. The Ministry’s spokesperson, says the government is “deeply worried” about the strike’s impact on the academic calendar. We do not doubt the concern. We question its timing.

Where was this urgency in August, when the same issues were raised and the same promises made? Where was the follow-through in September, as the deadline the government itself accepted came and went?

The Ministry says the dispute cannot be resolved by the Education Ministry alone and that the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department must be involved. That is true. But it is also an admission that the government’s internal coordination has failed. A minister who cannot get his own agencies to act on commitments made at his own table bears responsibility for the consequences.

And the consequences are significant. The government boasts, correctly, that it restored the academic calendar after years of disruption. Pupils from kindergarten to university are now reporting in September for the first time in years.

The children pay the price

A nationwide strike disrupts learning for millions of children. It places additional strain on families who have no alternative childcare. It undermines whatever gains have been made in enrollment and retention. And it does so because the government treated its own commitments as optional.

The New Publisher believes teachers deserve fair pay, timely promotions and respect for agreements signed. The government has failed on all three counts. Monday’s meeting is an opportunity to correct course.

If it produces only another set of promises with another set of deadlines that will be missed, then the government should not be surprised when the classrooms remain empty, the academic calendar falters, and the public concludes that this administration talks a good game but cannot deliver the basics.