The Ghana Education Service (GES) has disclosed that it has already processed more than 30,000 out of an expected 60,000 documents required to place promoted teachers on their new salary scales, expressing confidence that it will meet the one-week ultimatum set by the Minister of Education.
Daniel Fenyi, Head of Public Relations at GES, gave a detailed account of how the promotion placement dispute unfolded, from an initial automatic placement system through a series of directives and meetings that ultimately led to the current teacher strike.
Mr Fenyi explained that GES inherited a system in which teachers who passed their promotion exams would simply see their new grade reflected on their pay slips, without needing to submit any documentation.
He said the Service considered this a workable arrangement, since it placed minimal burden on teachers.
However, he said the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) took the position that this automatic placement approach had only ever been a COVID-19-era intervention, not a permanent feature of the payroll process, and that the system needed to revert to one requiring formal documentation.
He said this disagreement generated extended discussions among GES, the CAGD and the teacher unions, prompting the Ministry of Education to convene all stakeholders for a meeting on 31 August. At that meeting, it was agreed that automatic placement would continue, with no documents required.
Strike Declared as September Salaries Passed Without Change
Mr Fenyi said GES expected promoted teachers to see their new ranks reflected in September salary payments following the 31 August agreement.
When September salaries were paid without these changes, teachers felt the agreement had not been honoured, prompting the unions to declare a strike.
“This wasn’t the agreement we had. We thought we were supposed to have automatic placement and payments.”
Daniel Fenyi, Head of Public Relations at GES
He said the Minister of Education responded swiftly, summoning all stakeholders again, including the CAGD, GES, the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the teacher unions, to a meeting held the previous Monday.
One-Week Ultimatum and Early Progress
At that meeting, Mr Fenyi said the Minister directed that if the CAGD still required input forms and supporting documents, GES should produce them within one week.
He confirmed that GES was expected to produce roughly 60,000 documents, and that as of that morning, more than half, about 30,000, had already been processed.
“We are going to meet the one-week ultimatum that the Ministry gave us.”
Daniel Fenyi, Head of Public Relations at GES
He said the intention behind the exercise is to raise a supplementary payment voucher for the new salary ranks, with the Minister indicating that the new salaries could realistically be expected to reflect in the October payroll while the documentation process continues.
GES has therefore been given until the following Monday to submit everything to the Controller.
The Conditions for Ending a Strike
Mr Fenyi outlined what he described as the three general conditions under which a group typically calls off strike action, when their demand is fully met, when they observe good faith and commitment from the other party even if the demand is not yet fully met, or through intervention by the National Labour Commission.
He argued that government and GES have met the threshold of good faith across all three issues raised by the unions. On promotions, he cited the 30,000 documents already processed, with the remainder expected within the given week.
On the Deprived Area Allowance, he said a roadmap has been established, with the process expected to be completed by January 2027. On the Collective Agreement, he said the Minister has directed the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission to meet the teacher unions the following week to begin negotiations.
An Appeal to Teachers
Mr Fenyi summarised that where calls needed to be made, they had been made; where documents needed to be processed, work was under way; and where activities needed to begin, they had started.
On this basis, he renewed GES’s appeal to teachers to reconsider their strike action in light of the demonstrated commitment from government.
As GES works to complete the outstanding documentation within the Minister’s deadline, attention will turn to whether the promised progress across all three grievances, promotion placements.
The Deprived Area Allowance and the Collective Agreement negotiations, proves sufficient to persuade the unions to call off the strike and return teachers to classrooms nationwide.
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