Nearly 80,000 teachers in the Ghana Education Service (GES) are expected to be placed on their appropriate salary scales after the government reached an agreement with three teacher unions to resolve delays in implementing promotions.
The agreement was reached at an emergency meeting on Monday, August 31, between Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu, his deputy Dr Clement Abas Apaak, the leadership of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG), alongside officials involved in the salary administration process.
Following the meeting, the unions agreed to call off their planned industrial action, which had been threatened over delays in placing teachers who had passed promotional examinations on their appropriate salary scales.
Under the agreement, teachers who successfully passed their promotional examinations will have January 2026 as the effective start date for their placement on the new salary scales.
The arrangement applies to teachers who passed their promotion examinations, whether they sat the examinations in the previous year or in 2026.
Deputy Education Minister Dr Clement Apaak said the decision was reached as part of a compromise between government and the unions to resolve the dispute and prevent disruption to teaching and learning.
He said the government was committed to ensuring that teachers receive the salaries attached to the ranks they have legitimately earned.
A key part of the agreement is that teachers will no longer be required to travel to district or regional education offices to submit payslips or other documents as a condition for salary-scale placement.
Instead, the Ghana Education Service will provide the necessary data to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, which will use it to process the required salary adjustments and payments.
The government expects to complete the placement of between 77,000 and 80,000 teachers by the end of September 2026.
Dr Apaak said if all the affected teachers could not be processed at once, government would undertake a supplementary exercise to clear any outstanding cases.
The agreement has brought an end, for now, to the industrial action threatened by the unions over the promotion and salary-placement delays.
GNAT had previously given the GES and other relevant institutions until September 7 to resolve outstanding concerns, including promotion placements, career progression and the renewal of the teachers’ Collective Agreement.
The unions had argued that delays in placing promoted teachers on their new salary scales had left affected teachers working in higher ranks without receiving the corresponding financial benefits.