Teachers employed by the Ghana Education Service (GES) in Ghana have threatened to boycott classes from May 6th over eight months of unpaid salaries. The teachers, who were recruited and posted in September 2024, have not been paid since their postings, although they have been at their posts.
Most of the affected teachers have also not been issued their staff IDs. In Ghana, newly posted teachers must first be issued their official staff IDs before they can complete their teacher recruitment process and begin to receive their monthly salaries.
In the absence of this, coupled with working on an empty stomach, the agitated and overly stressed teachers, who have been living on the benevolence of friends and families as well as buying basic supplies on credit, have vowed not to step into the classrooms when public and private schools reopen for the third term of the 2024-2025 academic year in early May.
The new government of Ghana, which took over power in January, is yet to respond to the plight of the teachers. The teachers are looking forward to a proactive response by the government and Honourable Haruna Idrisu, the current Minister of Education. Should the government fail to handle the current situation and provide the needed assurance, schoolchildren in Ghana’s public schools will suffer the effects of the non-payment of the teachers’ salaries.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) is yet to respond to the plight of the teachers, who have used all means available to reach out to the leadership of government, including President John Dramani Mahama, when they staged “We beg, pay us our salaries” public pleadings during the president’s visit to Kumasi, Ghana’s second-largest city by population.
Should the teachers go ahead with their planned boycott, the learners will be the losers. Other teachers, in the spirit of solidarity, have given their full support to their affected colleagues. Some have argued that the decision by the newly posted teachers to boycott classes effective May 6th over eight months of unpaid salaries has been long overdue.
READ: How to use the WAEC EXAM TIPS website
With just six days to the start of the new term, the Ministry of Education and the Ghana Education Service are expected to salvage the situation before schools reopen on May 5th, 2025.