GOVERNMENT SETS 16 OCTOBER TO PAY THE FIRST TEACHER ARREARS AND TELLS STRIKERS TO GO BACK TO CLASS

The government has set 16 October as the date for the first payment of promotion arrears owed to teachers, and it has asked those on strike to return to the classroom before the money arrives.

Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu made the pledge at the 2026 Teacher Prize ceremony in Accra. He said the state will pay promotion arrears owed to all eligible teachers from January 2020. The Ghana Education Service and the Controller and Accountant General’s Department were given until 4 p.m. on 5 October to validate at least 51,000 promoted teachers, place them on their new salary grades, and ready their arrears for a supplementary payment on or before 16 October.

“I have given the GES and the Controller and Accountant General up to 4 p.m. today, 5 October, to validate at least not less than 51,000 promoted teachers to be put on their new salary grades and their arrears paid through a supplementary intervention on or before 16 October,” he said.

The 51,000 are the first tranche, not the full list. Iddrisu put the wider group at about 80,000. He said the rest would have their arrears and salary adjustments dealt with by the end of October. “I give you that pledge, and I’ll stand in on 30 October on behalf of the President,” he said. A day earlier, at the validation centre, he had called a miss on the 30 October grade placement inexcusable. The validated files are to go to the Controller, with the finance minister asked to release a supplementary payment for the first leg.

The date is tied to a strike. Pre tertiary teachers have been out over unpaid promotion money and related demands. Iddrisu used the prize ceremony to renew the appeal for a return to class while negotiations continue. The government case is that the records must be cleaned before cash moves, and that a partial payment in ten days is the proof of intent. The unions have not, in the minister’s remarks, been quoted as calling off the action.

The practical risk is the one he named himself at the validation centre. He questioned a manual process and said there had to be a better way. A list of 51,000 names, grades and arrears, checked by hand and sent to the Controller inside a day, is the gate for the 16 October payment. If the file is late, or if the supplementary release slips, the date he announced at the Teacher Prize becomes a target rather than a credit on a salary account.

What he has promised is specific. Validation of at least 51,000 by the close of 5 October. New grades. Arrears from January 2020 paid, for that first group, through a supplementary intervention by 16 October. The remainder of about 80,000 by 30 October, when he said he would stand in for the President. What he has not promised is that the strike ends on his timetable. The classrooms reopen only if the teachers accept a date that still depends on a file and a finance release.