The Ministry of Education will meet the country’s teacher unions on Monday, September 28, in a fresh attempt to resolve a dispute over unpaid promotion arrears and other outstanding demands.

The meeting comes amid a nationwide strike by teacher unions over unpaid promotion arrears and delays in negotiations with the government.

Press Secretary and Spokesperson for the Ministry of Education, Hasmin Mohammed, disclosed this on Joy FM’s Midday News on Friday, September 25.

He said the Education Minister would engage the various stakeholders to resolve the dispute and prevent the strike from further disrupting the academic calendar.

“I’ve just had information from the Honourable Minister that we intend to meet them on Monday in order to continue to pursue them to call off the strike,” he said.

Mr Mohammed said the dispute could not be resolved by the Education Ministry alone, as it required the involvement of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission and the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department.

He said the Minister would use Monday’s meeting to provide a platform for the relevant institutions and the unions to engage directly.

READ ALSO: Teacher unions declare nationwide strike over unpaid promotion arrears and delayed negotiations

The Ministry, he added, was “deeply worried” about the strike because of its potential impact on the academic calendar.

Mr Mohammed said significant efforts had been made to restore the calendar to normality after previous disruptions, with pupils and students from kindergarten through to university now reporting in September.

“It took the Honourable Minister and then that of the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service to be able to restore sanity into the academic calendar,” he said.

“For the first time, we are having our Ghanaian school children from KG to university all reporting in this September. So that tells you that we have been able to reverse the academic calendar.”

He warned that continued industrial action could undermine those gains, with students only recently returning to school.

Mr Mohammed said Monday’s meeting would bring the relevant parties together to address the unions’ concerns and seek an end to the strike.

According to him, the Ministry would do everything within its capacity to prevent further disruption to the academic calendar.