The General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Thomas Tanko Musah, has defended the ongoing teachers’ strike, insisting that the unions do not intend to cause harm.
He explained that rather, they are demanding the implementation of an agreement reached with government.
He said the unions resorted to industrial action after attempts to resolve the concerns through negotiations failed to produce the expected payment of appropriate salaries to newly promoted teachers.
According to him, during previous negotiations, it was stated that newly promoted teachers would not be required to submit additional documents and that the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department would be instructed to process their salary payments automatically.
“We don’t mean harm. We went for a meeting to negotiate, they themselves read the text out that nobody should submit any document and Controller was instructed to go and pay the thing automatically to teachers and you have not done it, is it our making?” he stated on TV3’s Hot Issues, Sunday, October 4, 2026.
Tanko Musah argued that teachers are employees of the government and not the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, which only facilitates the payment of their salaries.
“We didn’t work for Controller, we work for Government but government decided that the salaries that we will take should go through Controller,” he said.
He therefore maintained that government has a responsibility to ensure that teachers receive the salaries they are entitled to after fulfilling their obligations.
Musah noted that if government had provided the funds and instructed the Controller to pay teachers, it was incumbent on Government, their employer to ensure that the directive was implemented.
“If somebody has worked and the person is going to Controller to go and take his salary and the person who is supposed to pay my salary is telling me that he will not give it to me, then my employer is under obligation and he owes me the duty of care to order that person, authorize and instruct him that look the money I gave you to give to my employees, give it to them,” he stated.
He stressed that the unions’ disagreement was ultimately with their employer, the government, over the handling of the salary payments.
“We did not work for Controller and if there is anything, we have an issue with our employer (Government) and that is where we are now,” he remarked.
Pre-tertiary teacher unions in Ghana—including GNAT, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and PRETAG declared a nationwide strike from Friday, September 25, 2026
Their concerns include; failure to automatically place promoted teachers on their correct salary levels, delays in processing salary arrears and adjustments for affected teachers and non-implementation of the 20% Deprived Area Allowance and expired conditions of service/collective agreements.
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu and Finance Minister Dr. Cassiel Ato Forson have urged the unions to call off the industrial action, committing to resolve promotion allowances and schedule further negotiations with the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).
However, the unions remain adamant, instructing members to stay off until new salaries and arrears have been paid.
