Teacher unions have rejected Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu’s appeal to return to the classroom, insisting that they will remain on strike until the government takes concrete action on their outstanding demands.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) said Monday’s meeting with the Education Minister and other government officials produced no new commitments beyond what teachers have heard previously.

“It has been the old story of promises upon promises,” GNAT said after the meeting.

“Where we have reached at the moment, we are not taking promises. We want action.”

The union subsequently directed its members to continue staying away from the classroom.

“Our teachers must continue to stay home until we see something concrete. Until we see the salary, the arrears reflecting on our payslips and credited to our accounts. Until we see that, we are not going back to school,” GNAT said.

GNAT Head of Salaries Isaac Baah said the unions were no longer prepared to rely on verbal assurances from government officials.

He specifically questioned assurances that payment of the Deprived Area Allowance would begin in January 2027.

“So what is the evidence? What has been put on paper? What is on paper to show that they will start paying the deprived area allowance by 2027? We want to see it. We want to see something documented,” he said.

For the unions, he said, a commitment to pay must be supported by a written timeline and evidence that the process has begun.

Mr Baah also said negotiations for a new Collective Agreement had not made the progress the unions expected.

The existing agreement has expired, while negotiations on its replacement remain outstanding. The unions say this has affected allowances that should have been paid in September.

“There are allowances that ought to be paid this month, September. And because it has expired, we've not concluded on it. And there's no timeline for when we are going to finish with the negotiation,” he said.

According to Mr Baah, government officials have indicated that timelines for concluding the negotiations will be presented at another meeting on Tuesday.

“They said when we meet on Tuesday, there will be timelines. So let us meet on Tuesday. They should give us a timeline. If we accept it, so be it,” he said.

Mr Baah said the unions could reconsider the strike if government provides a clear and acceptable timeline in writing.

He said, for example, if government commits on paper to concluding the negotiations by the middle or end of October, the unions would be able to take that document to their members for consideration.

“If we know that and it is on paper, and we bring it out, and everybody sees it, our constituents, the teachers, see that this is what we have on paper, definitely we'll have no choice but to say that, oh, because of the way negotiations are going and where we've gotten to now, let us go back to the classroom,” he said.

“So it is not just by word of mouth. It is something that we have to see, something concrete.”

The unions’ position follows an appeal from Haruna Iddrisu for them to suspend the strike while discussions continue.

At Monday’s meeting, the Education Minister acknowledged the concerns raised by the unions but urged them to consider the impact of the industrial action on the academic calendar.

The government has been particularly concerned about protecting the September-to-July calendar, which schools only recently returned to after previous disruptions.

The meeting brought together GNAT, the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG), the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC).

GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG began their nationwide strike on September 25 after a September 24 deadline given to the government to resolve their concerns expired without a settlement.

Their demands include the conclusion of negotiations for a new Collective Agreement, automatic placement of teachers who passed promotion examinations in December 2025 and February 2026 onto their appropriate salary scales, and payment of arrears dating from January 2026.

They are also demanding implementation of the Deprived Area Allowance for teachers working in deprived and hard-to-reach communities.

The unions had previously accepted government assurances that promotion placements would be completed by the end of September, but say the commitment has not been fully implemented.

For now, GNAT says the unions will remain on strike until they see evidence of actual implementation rather than further assurances.