Daniel Fenyi, Head of the Public Relations Unit at the Ghana Education Service (GES), has disclosed that GES has been tasked with submitting outstanding documentation required to place promoted teachers on their appropriate salary scales by next Monday, after an earlier same-day deadline set by the Minister of Education was missed.
Speaking on the ongoing teacher strike, Mr Fenyi provided an inside account of the events leading up to the industrial action, tracing the dispute back through a stabilised academic calendar, a delayed promotion examination, and a breakdown in the agreed process for placing successful teachers on their new salary grades.
Mr Fenyi noted that Ghana had endured an unstable academic calendar for five to six years until this year, when it was finally stabilised, with schools and senior high school students resuming roughly a week to two weeks ago. He said the sector was expecting a smooth academic take-off before the strike disrupted proceedings.
He recalled that the last time teacher unions jointly declared a strike was around 20 March 2024, driven largely by two concerns, the need to begin discussions on renewing the Collective Agreement, and the instability of the academic calendar. He noted that while the calendar has since been stabilised, negotiations on the Collective Agreement remain ongoing.
Two Cohorts Combined for One Examination
On the promotion examination itself, Mr Fenyi explained that it was written in December last year because two separate cohorts of teachers were combined.
One cohort had been due for promotion in 2024 but could not be accommodated at the time, so they were added to the 2025 group, resulting in two batches sitting the examination together.
He said results were released around May and June, after which the customary practice would have been to automatically place successful teachers on their new salary scales, a practice GES expected to continue.
Disputed COVID-19 Explanation
According to Mr Fenyi, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department later explained that automatic placement had only been a COVID-19-era intervention, requiring a return to a more document-based process.
He said these triggered back-and-forth discussions, with the teacher unions siding with GES and issuing a letter supporting automatic placement.
He acknowledged that the Controller’s requirements, a duly completed and signed promotion or change-of-grade input form, and a copy of the promotion or upgrading letter, sounded simple in themselves, but explained that nationwide implementation required individual teachers to travel from their schools to district offices to complete submissions.
“If the automatic approach was still viable before, why change the method now?”
Daniel Fenyi
Conflicting Accounts of the August Meeting
Mr Fenyi maintained that the meeting of 31 August 2026, convened by the Ministry of Education and involving the Controller, GES, and the teacher unions, had agreed on automatic placement of newly promoted teachers.
He referenced a statement by the Deputy Minister, titled “Outcome of Emergency Meeting Between the Honourable Minister for Education and the Teacher Unions,” still available on the Deputy Minister’s official Facebook page, as supporting his account.
This account was put to him as contradicting CAGD’s own statement, which said the meeting had agreed that GES would provide the master list, promotion letters and completed input forms as prerequisites for payment.
“At this point, we should be less concerned with the blame games. The bottom line is that teachers need their money.”
Daniel Fenyi
Missed Deadline and A New One
Mr Fenyi confirmed that the Minister had met the unions and given assurances, including a directive that GES align with the Controller and submit outstanding input forms and documentation by 4pm on the day of the interview.
He clarified that the figure involved covers roughly 80,000 teaching and non-teaching staff combined, with teaching staff alone numbering between 59,000 and 60,000, aligning with the 58,000 figure cited by CAGD.
Pressed on whether the 4pm deadline had been met, Mr Fenyi acknowledged it had not, but announced that a new deadline of the following Monday had since been set.
He said GES staff were working around the clock at its headquarters to meet the new target, expressing confidence that the Service would deliver given its track record of meeting pressured deadlines when teachers’ welfare was at stake.
Mr Fenyi indicated that beyond the promotion placement matter, two further issues remained to be addressed.
The renewal of the Collective Agreement and the Deprived Area Allowance for teachers serving in hard-to-reach communities, both of which he said would be taken up with union representatives in subsequent engagements.
As the new Monday deadline approaches, attention will focus on whether GES can finally deliver the outstanding documentation and whether this resolves the confusion between GES and CAGD over what was agreed at the 31 August meeting.
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