Ghana’s Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu says the records of at least 51,000 teachers affected by the ongoing pre-tertiary teachers’ strike are expected to be validated by Monday, 5 October 2026.
Mr Iddrisu made the announcement during a visit to the data processing centre overseeing the exercise on Sunday, 4 October 2026.
The validation is intended to help resolve concerns raised by the teacher unions and enable the government to pay salaries owed to eligible teachers.
Once the process is complete, the validated records will be sent to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department. The department will then begin arrangements for supplementary payments, with the first tranche expected to be processed by 16 October.
“At least 51,000 would have been ready then we can direct the Controller and Accountant General through the Minister of Finance to get a supplementary payment for the first leg of it,” Mr Iddrisu said during his visit.
The minister questioned why officials were still relying on manual procedures to verify teachers’ records, saying the work could be carried out more efficiently with technology.
“We must find a way of doing this better. Why are we doing manual? Why should teachers at this age be filling forms? We can do so by using an IT infrastructure system,” he said.
“I will raise questions about this and I think that we must find a better way of doing it than this manual,” he added.
Mr Iddrisu urged officials involved in the process to work quickly while maintaining accuracy, describing the validation as essential to ensuring that teachers receive the payments owed to them.
He also repeated the government’s commitment to placing promoted teachers on their new grades by 30 October. He said failing to meet that deadline would be inexcusable.
The minister appealed to the striking teachers to consider ending their industrial action, while recognising that their demands for a collective agreement and new conditions of service remained significant issues for the government to address.
He called for mutual respect and good faith between the government and the teacher unions as negotiations continue.
The government’s next steps will follow the submission of the validated data to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department, which will be instructed to make arrangements for the initial outstanding payments.
