Teacher salary delays now a human rights issue – Kofi Asare 

Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, has described the continued delays in paying some newly recruited teachers as a human rights issue, urging the Ghana Education Service (GES) to resolve all outstanding cases.

His comment follows protests by affected teachers, including a February 2026 picketing at the GES headquarters by dozens of 2024 recruits who said they had worked for months without staff identification numbers and salaries.

In April, the GES announced that government had secured approval to pay eligible salary arrears accumulated between August 2024 and November 2025 in instalments from May to August 2026.

However, the education advocate said the exhaustion of the 6,300 financial clearance granted by the Ministry of Finance had not resolved all cases identified on the ground.

“The handling of the inherited 2024/25 teacher recruits payroll onboarding has been one of the low points of this government. The situation could certainly have been better managed,” he said in a social media post on Wednesday, September 9.

He said evidence gathered from schools showed that some duly recruited and licensed teachers remained in deprived communities while working without pay.

Mr Asare further noted that weaknesses in the verification process at both national and sub-national levels had resulted in some teachers being shortchanged

The GES, in a statement issued on September 8, said its records showed that salaries and arrears due to the affected group had been processed, although some individual cases required further verification.

It therefore directed teachers with unresolved concerns to report to a dedicated Help Desk at its headquarters with supporting documents.

The Finance Ministry also said on September 8 that all 6,300 staff covered by the financial clearance arrangement had been paid and that there were no outstanding requests for financial clearance from the GES awaiting action.

“But this is no longer a remuneration issue; it is a human rights matter,” the EduWatch boss lamented.