The Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) has expressed concern over what it describes as the Ghana Education Service’s (GES) failure to provide a clear roadmap for the payment of arrears owed to teachers.
The association said the delay in settling the outstanding payments is creating uncertainty among affected teachers and could have wider implications for the stability of the education sector.
This follows a protest march by the Coalition of Unpaid Teachers to the Ministry of Finance, where they presented a petition over what they described as prolonged neglect and denial of their rightful earnings.
Speaking in an interview with TV3, PRETAG Vice President Adokwei Ayikwei Awulley said the situation is unacceptable and called for urgent action to streamline the payment process.
He stressed the need for clarity and structure in addressing the arrears, warning that the current approach risks undermining industrial harmony within the sector.
“Can you not just sit them down and give them a roadmap? Things must be streamlined. We need teachers, and we have to employ teachers for them to go and teach. It is wrong for one teacher to be handling three, four or even five classrooms because there are no teachers,” he said.
He also raised concerns about the government’s planned recruitment of 7,000 teachers, describing the figure as inadequate to address the existing staffing gaps.
According to him, the limited recruitment will not sufficiently resolve the backlog of unemployed trained teachers or the broader challenges facing schools nationwide.