'It has been the old story of promises upon promises; we won’t return until salaries, arrears are paid' – Striking teacher unions

The three teacher unions leading the ongoing nationwide strike have rejected an appeal by the government to resume teaching, saying they will remain on strike until concrete action is taken to resolve their outstanding concerns.

The decision was announced after a meeting between representatives of the unions and the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, who urged the teachers to return to work while assuring them that steps would be taken to address their demands.

The unions — the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) — are demanding the payment of outstanding promotion arrears and progress in negotiations on their conditions of service.

However, Head of Salaries, Grievances and Negotiations at GNAT, Isaac Baah, said the unions were no longer willing to rely on assurances without tangible results.

“Indeed, we met the minister and his team this afternoon with regard to our strike action. It has been the old story of promises upon promises,” he said.

“At the moment, we are not taking promises. We want action.”

Mr Baah said teachers would remain at home until the government demonstrated that it had fulfilled its commitments.

“Our teachers must continue to stay home until we see something concrete,” he said.

He explained that the unions expected the outstanding salaries and promotion arrears to be reflected on teachers’ payslips and credited to their accounts before any decision would be taken to end the strike.

“Until we see the salary and the arrears reflecting on our payslips and credited to our accounts, until we see that, we are not going back to school,” Baah said.

He added that the industrial action would continue until all the issues raised by the unions were fully addressed.

“We'll continue to stay home until all our issues are addressed and resolved,” he said.