Thousands of teachers across the country are accusing Education Minister Hon. Haruna Iddrisu of breaking his promise to them to pay their promotion arrears by the end of October.
The teachers are among a group of twenty-six thousand who had received promotions and had expected to be put on the new scale. Last, however, they realized during a validation exercise that they had not been placed on their new scales, effectively denying them their new pay scale and arrears
In the first week of October, the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, had assured striking teachers across the country that the government will settle outstanding promotion arrears owed to them by October 30th.
Hon. Haruna Iddrisu said the government recognised its responsibility as an employer to ensure that teachers receive all payments due to them, including arrears arising from promotions.
The Minister gave the assurance while speaking at a two-day symposium and exhibition organised for teachers by the National Teaching Council (NTC) at the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Hall in Accra.
In his address, the Education Minister said the government had accepted responsibility for fulfilling its financial obligations to teachers and would ensure that outstanding promotion arrears were paid. “The government has accepted that I am responsible for honouring my obligations as an employer to all teachers. And we have accepted that we will pay their arrears. We will honour them. “If by October 30, your promotion arrears are not paid, then I will have no honour.”
Speaking to The Daily Searchlight yesterday, however, representatives of the affected teachers recalled that when teachers went on strike, the government promised to settle the issue as a matter of honour.
“Haruna put his job on the line, that if he is not able to deliver it by the end of the month he would resign. And now here we are, he has failed to deliver on his promise,” they said.
The affected teachers explained that the total number of teachers promoted were in excess of eighty thousand across the country.
The teachers explained that they noticed that the government had broken the package into two. They explained that the affected teachers numbered more that eighty something thousand something who were promoted and promised their payments by the 16th of this month.
“In fact the first promise was that by 16th, 66,000 teachers would have been paid, that’s the first batch. Then on the 16th they kept their word and they were paid. That is commendable. But there are the extra 26000 who were promised to be paid at the end of the month. It is now turning out, however, that the promse would not be kept to the second batch,” they said.
Explaining, they said that first, by their promotion, the teachers are being put on a new scale, two, they are receiving arrears, three, they are supposed to receive their Oct ober salary in addition, which is the new salary.
“So now, you promised that by the 16th, the 66000 would have been paid, and by 16th they were paid. The remaining 26000 were supposed to receive their new scale arrears ending this month. Now during the validation last week concerning the payment of salaries, it turned out that they have not been put on scale.
“Whatever figure that comes out during validation is what you are getting. During the validation last week Wednesday and Thursday, we came to the realization that not one teacher among the 26000 received their money. “All the 26000 who were supposed to be paid by the end of the month, during validation were not put on a scale. “Effectively they would not receive their arrears as promised by the minister, and he also promised that if it is not done he would put his job on the line,” they said.
The teachers wondered why their unions are silent on this development and wondered about what is motivating that silence.
“We don’t know what is happening,” they said dismally.
The payment of promotion arrears has been a longstanding concern within Ghana’s pre-tertiary education sector, with teacher unions repeatedly calling on government to clear outstanding obligations owed to their members.
The latest assurance comes after three major teacher unions declared a nationwide strike over the issue.
The Pre-Tertiary Education Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) announced industrial action on September 25 to press the government to pay arrears owed to their members.
The unions have maintained that delays in settling the outstanding payments have caused frustration among teachers and have called for concrete action to resolve the matter.
