By P. K. Yankey
Fijai (W/R), Oct. 01, GNA – Teacher unions in the Western and Western North Regions have thrown their weight behind the ongoing nationwide strike by pre-tertiary teachers, urging members to continue staying away from classrooms until their conditions of service are improved.
“As the strike declared by teacher unions in the country enters day five, their counterparts in the Western and Western North Regions – the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) – have declared solidarity with the national leadership to press home their demands for better conditions of service.”
Addressing a news conference at Fijai in Takoradi, Mr. Stephen Kwame Amenu, Western Regional Chairman of GNAT, said negotiations for a collective bargaining agreement with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) expired in June 2026 without payment of arrears to affected employees in the Ghana Education Service (GES).
In addition, he said promoted teachers had not been automatically placed on scale, citing the Ministry of Education (MoE), the GES and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) for failing to implement their own agreement with the teacher unions.
The agreement stipulates the automatic placement of two cohorts of teachers who successfully passed the December 2025 and February 2026 promotion tests onto their respective salary scales with arrears backdated to January 2026.
Mr. Amenu said the leadership of the teacher unions met the sector Minister who gave them another promise of October, which did not go down well with the Unions.
He said the deprived area allowance had also been on the negotiating table since 2024 without implementation to cushion teachers in rural areas with the proposed 20 per cent allowance.
The Western Regional GNAT Chairman said the posture of the FWSC to ignore the 2024 ruling by the National Labour Commission (NLC) could no longer be tolerated by the Unions.
He said the development had not only angered employees of the GES but was a testimony of unfair labour practices.
Mr. Amenu said leadership of the teacher unions in the Western and Western North Regions had declared solidarity with their national leadership and therefore called on all teachers to continue to stay away from the classroom.
GNA
Edited by Justina Hilda Paaga /Kenneth Odeng Adade
Reporter PK Yankey