The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) and Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) have declared an immediate strike over unresolved issues relating to their conditions of service, promotion and deprived-area allowance. The three teacher unions announced the decision at a press briefing in Accra on Friday, September 25, directing all pre-tertiary teachers to withdraw their services and stay away from the classroom until further notice.
President of PRETAG, King Ali Awudu, said the unions’ existing conditions of service expired in June, while efforts to negotiate a new agreement since last year had failed to produce an outcome. “You will recall that we have once engaged the media and informed you that our conditions of service have expired since June. All efforts to get a new one negotiated since last year have yielded no fruits,” he said.
The unions also expressed dissatisfaction with a proposed 10% increase in the digital allowance, which currently stands at GH¢800 per year. Mr Awudu said an agreement to automatically place about 80,000 teachers who took aptitude tests in December 2025 and February 2026 on the appropriate salary scale had also not been implemented, despite September salaries already being processed.
He added that the deprived-area allowance remained another outstanding concern, noting that the matter had been under consideration since 2009. According to him, a previous commitment to introduce a 20% allowance for teachers working in deprived areas had yet to be implemented.
Mr Awudu said the failure to resolve the outstanding issues had left the unions with no alternative but to instruct their members to withdraw their services. “We are asking all teachers that with immediate effect, as soon as this information goes out, they should put all their tools down, leave the classroom, go home and have a very good rest and wait until they hear from leadership again,” he said.
