The Ministry of Education will meet the country’s teacher unions on Monday, September 28, as it seeks to resolve the ongoing dispute over unpaid promotion arrears and other outstanding demands.
The meeting comes as teacher unions continue their nationwide strike over delays in the payment of promotion arrears and negotiations with the government.
Press Secretary and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Hasmin Mohammed, disclosed this on Joy FM’s Midday News on Friday, September 25.
According to him, the Education Minister will use the meeting to bring the unions and relevant government institutions together to find a solution and end the strike.
“I’ve just had information from the Honourable Minister that we intend to meet them on Monday in order to continue to pursue them to call off the strike,” he said.
Mr Mohammed explained that the dispute involved issues that could not be resolved by the Education Ministry alone, requiring the involvement of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.
He said Monday’s meeting would therefore provide an opportunity for the relevant institutions to engage directly with the teacher unions and address their concerns.
The Ministry, he added, was “deeply worried” about the strike because of its possible impact on the academic calendar.
Mr Mohammed noted that significant efforts had been made to restore the academic calendar after previous disruptions, with pupils and students from kindergarten through to university now reporting to school in September.
“It took the Honourable Minister and then that of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service to be able to restore sanity into the academic calendar,” he said.
He warned that another prolonged disruption could undermine these gains, particularly as students had only recently returned to school.
