Teachers in training colleges across the country have embarked on strike to pressure government to elevate training colleges into tertiary status. Parliament passed the Colleges of Education bill into law last year, paving the way for the upgrade of the country’s teacher training colleges into tertiary institution status. However, that law has still not been implemented, prompting the teachers to embark on a nationwide strike. Final year students in the training colleges say they are worried about the development. Meanwhile, talks to end the strike have broken down, raising fears final year students may not be able to graduate this year. President of the Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana, Nkyi Asamoah told Joy News they met the Ministry of Education and all stakeholders to press home their demand but that has not yielded much result. He accused implementers of the law of “dragging their feet” under the guise of fine-tuning things. Training colleges started awarding diploma since 2007 which automatically makes them tertiary institutions, but this has not impacted on teachers conditions of service, he noted. But Deputy Minister of Education Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa thinks claim that government is dragging its feet was not fair. According to him, the ministry met the leadership of the Association Tuesday morning and indicated to them that “lots of their demands do not lie in the domain of the Ministry of Education”. He acknowledged that after the passage of Colleges of Education Act, 2012, Act 847 which gave tertiary status to the training colleges, they should have been moved from the Ghana Education Service to the Ghana Council of Tertiary Education. Ablakwa however said a monthly forum has been instituted by the Education Ministry to resolve their issues, and said the forum has recorded some progress. “The issue now has to do with working conditions. They want to be moved out of GES so that they will be receiving enhanced working conditions; we are saying that this is a matter for them to engage the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission.” He said all the 38 colleges of education would have to get their own status and governing council to make their new status complete. He therefore appealed to the teachers to exercise patience. “All these things have not be done and we need time to implement these things.” He will however not put a time line to it.