Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu has outlined a government roadmap to address the concerns of striking teacher unions, while appealing to them to suspend their nationwide industrial action and return to the classroom.

Mr Iddrisu said the government had held “very open and frank negotiations” with the unions and presented its position on the issues that triggered the strike.

“I have engaged in very open and frank negotiations with the teacher unions over their industrial action. The government team is in touch with them to call off the strike action whilst negotiations continue,” he said.

The roadmap includes fresh negotiations on the Collective Agreement, a validation process for the 20% Deprived Area Allowance and a deadline for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to submit data on promoted teachers for processing of their new salaries.

The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) is expected to meet the teacher unions on Tuesday, September 29, to continue negotiations on their Collective Agreement and conditions of service.

The Collective Agreement is one of the major issues behind the strike, with the unions demanding the conclusion of negotiations on a new agreement following the expiration of the previous one.

On the 20% rural deprived allowance, Mr Iddrisu said the government had constituted a validation committee chaired by the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.

The committee will validate the data required for the implementation of the allowance and develop a roadmap with the participation of the teacher unions.

Mr Iddrisu said the government remained committed to beginning implementation in January 2027, subject to completion of the validation process.

“Be assured that the government of President Mahama remains committed to rolling out the rural deprived 20% allowance effective January 2027, subject to the validation of the data and the fine roadmap to which the teacher union will be adequately represented,” he said.

On the issue of teachers who have been promoted but are yet to be placed on the appropriate salary grades, the Minister said the Director-General of GES had been tasked to submit the outstanding data to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD).

He said the exercise would run through to 4pm on Monday, October 5, 2026, to enable CAGD to process the salaries of affected teachers on their new grades.

“The data of promoted teachers to the Controller and Accountant-General for him to process payment of salaries on the new grade having been promoted at the end of October. That is what government can do for them,” he said.

Mr Iddrisu said the GES Director-General would work through the weekend under the supervision of the Employment and Labour Relations Minister, with representatives of the teacher unions involved in the process.

Regional directors and input officers are also expected to be brought to Accra to accelerate the compilation and submission of the data.

The Education Minister said data on up to 29,000 promoted teachers had so far been received for the arrears.

However, he explained that September salaries had already been processed, meaning the new salary grades could not be reflected in that month’s payroll.

“We can't work back the process. So, the commitment of the Controller and Accountant-General will be to action this for October, and if there is any supplementary arising out of it, he will honour same,” he said.

This means affected teachers whose data is successfully processed would have their new salary grades addressed from October, with any resulting supplementary payments to be handled by CAGD.

The government’s proposals come after the three major teacher unions — the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) — rejected an earlier appeal to return to the classroom.

GNAT said after Monday’s meeting that teachers would remain at home until they saw concrete action, including arrears reflected on their payslips and credited to their accounts.

The unions have also demanded documented commitments on the implementation of the Deprived Area Allowance rather than verbal assurances.

With FWSC negotiations scheduled for Tuesday and the GES deadline set for October 5, the government’s proposed timelines will now be tested against the unions’ demand for concrete evidence of implementation.

The nationwide strike, which began on September 25, has disrupted teaching and learning across the country and comes shortly after Ghana returned to the September-to-July academic calendar.