Spokesperson for the 2022 batch of graduate teachers, Simon Kofi Nartey, says their ongoing protest over unpaid salaries and delayed staff identification numbers is not intended to make the government unpopular.

Speaking in an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem, he explained that their actions are a result of frustration after exhausting several channels to get their concerns addressed.

“We are teachers, not politicians. It’s not in our minds to make the government unpopular. From the beginning, we have made many efforts to resolve this issue,” he said.

According to him, the group had consistently delegated their leaders to engage with the appropriate authorities in a bid to get their staff IDs and salaries processed, but it appears their patience is being taken for granted.

“In the previous administration, we were told that staff IDs are issued in batches. The first batch was released in December last year, so we waited, believing the rest would come soon,” he noted.

However, he said that by March and April this year, the promised follow-up IDs and payment of arrears had still not materialised.

“We kept waiting, but nothing happened. That’s why we decided to take this action. It’s not something we just woke up and did—we were forced to take this step,” he explained.

His comments follow a protest staged by a group of newly trained teachers from the 2022 batch of Colleges of Education graduates at the Ghana Education Service (GES) headquarters on Monday, June 23.

The teachers, who claim they have gone months without pay, said they submitted a formal petition to GES but waited for over two hours at the premises without any response from officials.

Tensions rose when police officers arrived and gave the group a three-minute ultimatum to disperse. When the teachers refused, they were forcefully removed from the premises.

Despite this, the protesters say they are not backing down. They plan to present a petition to the Ministry of Finance on Tuesday before proceeding to Parliament.