The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) has suspended its planned strike on April 30.
This decision comes after President Mahama directed the Ministry of Education to address concerns relating to teacher promotions.
Just three days to the planned nationwide strike by GNAT, President Mahama has stepped in to avert the industrial action.
Acting through the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, the President directed the Ministry to be swift in addressing the concerns raised by GNAT.
According to figures from the Ghana Education Service, out of 54,000 teachers awaiting promotion this month, 50,000 have already been promoted. Additionally, 579 out of 1,579 teachers previously removed from the payroll have now had their names reactivated.
GNAT’s General Secretary, Thomas Tanko Musah, commended all stakeholders involved in resolving the promotion issues.
“We believe that what his Excellency has done, subsequent promotions I will not be surprised if we see more teachers now taking more positions. They can now rise to the position of deputy directors. We have more professionals we have more people well informed rising to that position, and I think his Excellency the President we are grateful to him for what he has done,” Mr Musah said.
Following this development, GNAT has officially suspended its intended strike.
“Given the engagement we had with the Public Services Commission earlier on and today with the Ghana Education Service, and given all the information that we have gathered, we have all agreed that by the close of May we should work around and get the issues resolved,” he said.
But even as the dust settles, new tensions are surfacing within the education sector.
GNAT is now accusing Regional Directors of Education of deliberately frustrating efforts to upgrade teachers nationwide.
“It came up in our meeting today that some of the Regional Directors are the people frustrating the upgrading of teachers. It was agreed that the Director General is going to issue a strongly worded letter to all the Regional Directors. Please Regional Directors where we are now, we must make sure that we all work together to get the problem resolved,” Mr Musah urged.
