GES PRO Daniel Fenyi Appeals to Striking Teachers to Return to Classroom

Speaking on JoyNews TV, Mr Fenyi said the government and the institutions responsible for the issues affecting teachers must move beyond prolonged discussions and focus on implementing the commitments made to teachers.

His comments come amid the ongoing strike by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG), which began on September 25, 2026.

The dispute centres on the placement and payment of promoted teachers, the proposed 20 per cent deprived-area allowance and the renewal of the teachers’ collective agreement. The Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, has since outlined measures covering the three areas.

Daniel Fenyi: Government must stop the blame game and get to work

Mr Fenyi said the government side must reduce the focus on assigning blame and concentrate on resolving the outstanding issues.

He said this responsibility extends beyond the Ministry of Education to include the Ghana Education Service, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) and other relevant institutions involved in the process.

According to him, the immediate concern for teachers is not which institution is responsible for a delay but whether the money due them will be paid.

He therefore appealed to the unions to have confidence in the process that has now been outlined.

GES PRO challenges blame over promoted teachers’ salaries

A significant part of Mr Fenyi’s comments concerned the process for placing teachers who have successfully gone through promotion on their new salary grades.

He said an agreement reached at a meeting on August 31 provided that promoted teachers would be placed automatically on their new ranks.

A communiqué from the August 31 meeting, issued by the Communications Directorate of PRETAG, stated that all promoted teachers were to be placed on their respective salary scales by September 2026 and that the placement was to be automatic. It also stated that teachers were not required to fill forms or submit application letters for the placement.

Mr Fenyi said the subsequent insistence that GES submit documents to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department represented a new development that was not part of the August 31 agreement.

He consequently rejected attempts to place the responsibility for the entire process on GES.

His position is that the August 31 agreement established automatic placement, while the later request for documentation has created an additional administrative requirement that GES must now work to satisfy.

GES directed to submit documents by October 5

Mr Fenyi said the Education Minister has since directed the Ghana Education Service to submit the necessary documents to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.

The deadline given is Monday, October 5, 2026.

He said GES had received the directive in good faith and had already started working on the required documentation.

Mr Fenyi further indicated that, based on the work underway, GES expects to meet the deadline.

The issue of promoted teachers’ salaries has been one of the central points in the current industrial dispute. The Education Minister has separately said the government is working with data on promoted teachers and that outstanding promotion-related payments are expected to be addressed through the October payroll, with supplementary payments possible where necessary.

October salary adjustment remains a key expectation

Beyond the October 5 deadline for the submission of documents, Mr Fenyi said the Education Minister had indicated that the more realistic expectation is for the new ranks of affected promoted teachers to be reflected in their October payments.

He said a supplementary voucher could also be raised, but that the October payroll provides a more realistic timeframe for the new salary grades to appear.

The government has also said that promotion arrears dating back to January 2026 are being considered, although data verification issues remain to be resolved.

For teachers affected by the promotion issue, the key outcome will therefore be whether their new ranks and corresponding payments are reflected as indicated.

FWSC to meet teacher unions over collective agreement

Mr Fenyi also pointed to the government’s planned engagement with the teacher unions over the collective agreement.

He said the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission has been arranged to meet the unions to review the agreement.

The collective agreement is one of the issues cited by the unions in declaring the strike. The government has also confirmed that discussions on the agreement are expected to resume.

The meeting is intended to provide a further avenue for discussions on the conditions of service that remain unresolved.

Government targets January 2027 for 20% deprived-area allowance

On the proposed 20 per cent deprived-area allowance, Mr Fenyi said government was asking for time until January 2027 to finalise the necessary arrangements.

The Education Minister has said a validation committee involving government and teacher-union representatives has been established to validate data relating to schools and communities that qualify for the allowance. Government has stated that implementation is targeted for January 2027, subject to completion of the validation exercise and an agreed roadmap.

The allowance is another major issue in the teachers’ industrial action, although the unions have continued to demand concrete evidence and implementation arrangements.

Fenyi links strike to concerns over academic calendar

Mr Fenyi also raised concerns about the possible effect of the strike on the stability of Ghana’s academic calendar.

According to him, Ghana has experienced about six years without a stable academic calendar, and efforts by the Education Minister and the Director-General of GES had helped restore September as the beginning of the school year across the education system.

He said Kindergarten, primary, Junior High School, Senior High School and university-level institutions had all resumed in September.

Mr Fenyi argued that the current strike therefore comes at a time when considerable effort has been made to stabilise the academic calendar.

He appealed to the unions to consider the potential effect of prolonged disruption on Ghanaian children while the government institutions continue working on the outstanding matters.

‘This is not about Government winning and teachers losing’

Mr Fenyi framed the dispute as one requiring cooperation rather than a contest between government and teachers.

He said the objective should not be for government to “win” while teachers “lose”, or for teachers to win while government loses.

Instead, he called for a workable approach that addresses the concerns of teachers while protecting the education and future of children.

His appeal comes as the government seeks to resolve the issues behind the strike through separate processes covering promotion-related salary adjustments, the collective agreement and the proposed deprived-area allowance.

The teacher unions, however, have maintained that they want to see concrete action on their demands before ending the strike. Following the government’s latest engagement, union representatives said they would return to their respective councils to consider the outcome.

For now, the immediate milestones include the submission of the outstanding promotion-related documents by October 5, continued discussions on the collective agreement, and the validation process for the proposed 20 per cent deprived-area allowance.

GES PRO Daniel Fenyi Appeals to Striking Teachers

Mr Fenyi’s appeal for the unions to return to the classroom therefore remains part of a wider effort to resolve the dispute while the various government processes continue.