The President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Prosper Tachie, says the two-week strike by teacher unions will not throw the academic calendar into disarray, insisting that lost contact hours can be recovered.

He said the focus should not be solely on the disruption to academic activities but also on the welfare of teachers and the need for government to honour its commitments to them.

Speaking on JoyNews' Newsfile, Mr Tachie said the concerns over the academic calendar should not overshadow the issues that led to the industrial action.

“It’s quite unfortunate the concentration is on the academic calendar, but not our welfare. If you take good care of the employees, the employees in turn will take good care of the clients,” he said.

His comments follow a question about whether teachers could have trusted the government’s promises earlier to avoid disrupting the academic calendar.

Mr Tachie maintained that the lost instructional time could be recovered when teachers return to the classroom.

“It’s not about the academic calendar. It’s about execution, and once we return back to the classroom, you ensure that we make up for the lost contact hours. And I don't think the two weeks will put the entire academic calendar into disarray. We can put in some mechanisms to mitigate the situation to ensure that things return to normalcy,” he said.

Teacher unions suspended their strike following engagements involving the Minister of Labour and the Council of State, after assurances and commitments were given towards addressing the concerns of the teacher unions.

Mr Tachie stressed that the debate surrounding the strike should also consider teachers’ welfare and the implementation of agreed conditions of service.