All public pre-tertiary teachers on Monday abandoned their classrooms across the country in protest
of what they call legacy arrears.
Three teachers unions, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of
Graduate Teachers and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers say the Ghana Education Service has failed
to process their salary arrears from 2012 to 2015.
The President of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT), King Awudu Ali, told Citi News that
the teachers would only return to the classrooms after they have been paid.
“We have not been engaged yet. So the only thing we want to tell our members across the length and breadth
of the country is that our strike is in full force. All pre-tertiary teachers should not turn up to work today.
According to him, most of the arrears were from 2012 to 2015.
“That notwithstanding, we have some other arrears from 2017 to 2018, but those are not as much as those between 2012 and 2015. The monies are in
excess of thousands of cedis,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ministry of Education have in separate press releases
described the action as baseless, illegal and shocking.
The authorities have held a series of meetings with the leadership of the teacher groups where it discussed the
payment of the said arrears with the modalities involved, adding that a December 5 ultimatum given by the
teachers was not realistic.
The Ministry of Education had described the strike declared by the three teacher unions as baseless.
The Public Relations Officer of the Education Ministry, Ekow Vincent Assafuah, said the assertions made by
the teachers were inaccurate.
APA reports that many of the public pre-tertiary schools in Accra are empty and there are reports that
the situation is the same across the country.
DAP/GIK/APA