The teachers on nationwide strike have refushed to call off their action after a meeting with the Minister of Education, Haruna Iddrisu, today in Accra.

The striking teachers, who demand better conditions service with regard to payment of promotion arrears owed to teachers and delays in negotiations over their conditions of service, are not convinced despite their meeting with the Minister.

The Education Minister together with his deputy, Clement Apaak, meeting the leadership of the pre-tertiary teacher unions and the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) as well as the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), assured the teachers of President John Mahama's commitment to meet their demands.

"The government team have relayed to them to call off the strike action whiles negotiation continue. The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission will meet with them next week Tuesday to continue negotiatioins on their collective agreement and their conditions of service. We have accordingly constituted a validation commitee to be chaired by the Minister of Employment and Labour to validate data on government commitment to implement the 20 percent rural deprived allowance," Haruna Iddrisu intimated.

He asked the teachers to have patience and cancel their strike, saying "the government of John Mahama remains committed to rolling out the rural deprived allowance effective January 2027 subject to the validation of the data and a defined roadmap to which the teacher unions will be adequately represented".

But the leadership of the striking teachers have taken the Minister's word with a pinch of salt.

"It has been the old story of promises upon promises. Where we have reached at the moment, we are not taking promises. We want action. Our teachers must continue to stay home until we see something concrete. Until we see the salary, the arrears, reflecting on our pay slips and crediting our account, until we see that, we are not going back to school. We will continue to stay home until all our issues are addressed and resolved", GNAT told the media after the meeting.

"The Minister says they will start paying the deprived area allowance by January 2027, right? So, what is evidence? What have been put on paper? What is on paper to show that they will start paying the deprived area allowance by 2027?," the Vice President of the Pre-Tertiary Education Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG), Adokwei Ayikwei Awulley, also queried.

He emphasised that "we want to see it. We want to see something documented. Now, when I say there is no headway when it comes to the negotiation, you see they are trying to say that there will not be any increment; the collective agreement that we have now has expired. The allowances that ought to be paid this month, September, and because it has expired, we've not concluded on it and there is no timeline when we are going to finish with the negotiation".

The PRETAG Vice President stressed that the teachers look forward to a concrete resolution before they will accede to the Minister's plea.

"They said when we meet on Tuesday, there will be timelines. So, let us meet on Tuesday, they should give us the timeline. If we accept it, so be it, then we know that we are concluding negotiation on the collective agreement maybe...by the middle of October or by the end of October...So, it is not just by word of mouth. It is something that we have to see, something concrete."