OP-ED | By Ellis Ferdinand
The latest ultimatum issued by the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) over outstanding promotion salaries and arrears is understandable.
The frustration among teachers is real.
After months of waiting for the financial implementation of promotions, affected teachers understandably want to see their new ranks reflected on the payroll and the corresponding arrears paid.
The three unions have now given government until midday on Thursday, 24 September 2026, to address the outstanding issues. In their urgent notice dated 22 September, they said the 2025 promotion placement and payment of arrears had not been fully effected. They also raised the renewal of the Collective Agreement and payment of the Deprived Area Allowance.
The unions have every reason to keep pressure on government to honour commitments already made.
However, there is another important dimension to the current situation that deserves attention.
The agreement reached between government and the teacher unions on 31 August 2026 already contains a mechanism for dealing with teachers who are not captured in the September payroll.
That provision should not be overlooked.
The August Agreement Already Anticipated Incomplete Placement
The 31 August agreement followed an emergency meeting involving the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service, the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department and the leadership of the teacher unions.
The published communiqué states three important things.
First, the effective date for the substantive appointment of all promoted teachers was agreed as January 2026.
Second, all promoted teachers were to be placed on their respective salary scales by September 2026.
Third, and most importantly for the present situation, the agreement specifically provided that if some teachers were not placed by the end of September, a supplementary payroll would be raised to ensure that all affected teachers were duly placed on scale.
The agreement also made placement automatic. Promoted teachers were not required to fill forms or submit application letters for the placement exercise.
This is a crucial safety net.
It means the parties did not simply agree on a September deadline and leave teachers without a remedy if some cases remained outstanding.
They anticipated the possibility of incomplete placement and agreed on a mechanism for addressing those cases.
➡️ Related: Government Agrees Automatic Placement of Promoted Teachers as September 2026 Implementation Begins
➡️ Related: GES Revises Effective Date for 2025 Promotions to January 2026
The Real Question Is Whether We Should Allow the Agreed Process to Run
The latest ultimatum raises an important question.
Should the unions introduce a new deadline of 24 September, or should they continue to hold government to the end-of-September deadline already contained in the agreement?
In my view, the latter approach deserves serious consideration.
This is not an argument against the unions.
On the contrary, the unions have played an important role in bringing the promotion-placement issue to the attention of government and securing an agreement that gives affected teachers a January 2026 effective date.
Their pressure contributed to the agreement that teachers would be placed automatically and that the effective date would not be pushed forward to July 2026.
The unions should therefore continue to hold government accountable.
But accountability is strongest when it is anchored in the terms of the agreement already reached.
September Has Not Yet Ended
The 31 August agreement did not say that every teacher had to appear on the payroll by 24 September.
It said that promoted teachers should be placed by September 2026, with a supplementary payroll to cater for those who remained outstanding after the end of the month.
That distinction matters.
As of 22 September, September still has several days remaining.
If the agreed process is already underway and some teachers have begun seeing their placements reflected, the immediate task should be to determine the extent of the implementation, identify outstanding cases and ensure that the agreed supplementary payroll mechanism is activated for those who remain uncaptured.
The Ghana News Agency previously reported that the government had assured the unions that placement would be completed by the end of September and that a supplementary process would be used to clear outstanding cases.
Therefore, the safety net is not merely an interpretation of the agreement. It has also been publicly reported as part of the assurances given during the government-union engagement.
➡️ Related: Teacher Promotion 2026: January Effective Date and September Salary Placement Explained
➡️ Related: Some Promoted Teachers Have Been Put on Salary Scale, Ellis Ferdinand Reports
The Issue Is Implementation, Not Another Agreement
The central challenge now is implementation.
The government and unions have already reached an agreement on the critical questions of:
- the effective date;
- automatic placement;
- September salary-scale placement; and
- a supplementary payroll for teachers who remain outstanding after September.
The next stage should therefore be about making the agreement work.
Teachers should not have to negotiate the same issues repeatedly.
Government should provide clear information on how many teachers have been captured, how many remain outstanding, when the remaining cases will be processed and how the January 2026 arrears will be handled.
The unions, for their part, should continue demanding this information and insisting on compliance with the agreement.
What About the Teachers Already Placed?
There are reports that some teachers have already been placed on their appropriate salary scales during the September implementation.
That development is important because it suggests that the payroll process is not merely theoretical.
But the existence of some successful placements does not resolve the problem for teachers who remain outstanding.
Those teachers also have legitimate expectations under the agreement.
This is precisely why the supplementary payroll provision matters.
If some teachers are not captured in the September payroll, the agreed mechanism should be used to ensure that they are subsequently placed and that their financial entitlements are properly addressed.
The focus should therefore be on completing the process rather than abandoning it before the agreed deadline expires.
The January 2026 Effective Date Must Be Protected
One of the most important gains from the 31 August engagement was the agreement that the effective date for the substantive appointment of promoted teachers would be January 2026.
This was significant because concerns had previously been raised over an effective date beginning in July 2026.
The Ghana News Agency reported after the meeting that the arrears would instead be calculated from January 2026 for teachers who sat the relevant aptitude tests in December 2025 and February 2026.
GES subsequently communicated the revised January 2026 effective date for the 2025 promotion exercise. EducateGhana.com also reported on that development.
For affected teachers, therefore, the question is not merely “When will I appear on the scale?”
It is also:
“Will my salary adjustment and arrears properly reflect the agreed January 2026 effective date?”
That is where close monitoring will be required.
The Unions Still Have a Strong Role to Play
Calling for patience should not be confused with asking the unions to abandon their responsibility.
Far from it.
GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG must continue monitoring implementation.
They should demand regular updates from the relevant authorities and insist that teachers who remain outstanding after the September payroll are captured through the agreed supplementary mechanism.
If the agreed mechanism fails to operate, the unions would then have a much stronger factual basis for determining their next course of action.
The issue would no longer be whether government was given sufficient time to implement the agreement.
It would be whether government had failed to honour a specific mechanism that both sides had already accepted.
The 24 September Deadline and the End-of-September Agreement
The latest union notice gives government until midday on Thursday, 24 September 2026.
The unions state that if all the issues are not addressed by then, they may no longer be able to restrain teachers and that teachers should participate in actions announced by their leadership.
That is the unions’ stated position.
However, the previously published agreement provides a different timeline for the specific promotion-placement issue: the end of September, followed by a supplementary payroll for teachers who remain outstanding.
These two positions should therefore not be conflated.
The 24 September deadline is contained in the unions’ latest notice.
The end-of-September placement deadline and supplementary payroll are contained in the 31 August agreement.
The difference is important for teachers trying to understand what happens next.
What Should Happen Now?
Rather than allowing the dispute to escalate unnecessarily, the parties should use the remaining days of September to establish the actual implementation position.
Government and CAGD should provide the unions with a clear update on:
- The number of promoted teachers already placed on scale.
- The number still outstanding.
- The categories of teachers yet to be captured.
- The timetable for the remaining placements.
- The arrangements for the supplementary payroll.
- The treatment of arrears from the January 2026 effective date.
The unions should scrutinise the information and communicate the position clearly to teachers.
This would give teachers something more valuable than speculation: verifiable information about their individual and collective payroll status.
➡️ Related: What Promoted Teachers Should Check on Their Payslips
➡️ Related: Teacher Promotion Arrears 2026: What the January Effective Date Means
My Position: Respect the Agreement
The latest ultimatum is well-intentioned because it reflects the genuine frustration of teachers who have waited for their promotions to be financially implemented.
But I believe the stronger approach at this stage is to respect and exhaust the agreement already reached.
The unions signed the agreement.
Government signed onto the implementation framework.
The agreement provides a September deadline and, importantly, a supplementary payroll for teachers who are not captured by the end of September.
Let that process run.
Let government complete the September payroll.
Let the unions verify the outcome.
And if, after September, the supplementary payroll does not materialise and affected teachers remain unplaced, then the unions will have a clear and documented basis for taking whatever further steps they consider necessary.
That would make the argument much simpler:
The agreed deadline has passed. The agreed safety net has not been activated. Teachers remain outstanding.
At that point, the question would not be whether the unions acted too quickly.
It would be whether the agreement itself had been honoured.
Teachers Deserve Certainty
At the heart of this dispute are teachers who have already done what was required of them.
They sat the promotion examinations.
They passed.
They received their promotion outcomes.
They are now waiting for the corresponding financial implementation.
They deserve certainty.
They deserve to know their placement status.
They deserve clarity on their arrears.
And they deserve an implementation process that does not repeatedly move the goalposts.
The best way to provide that certainty now is for the parties to work from the agreement already reached and make its provisions operational.
Conclusion
The latest GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG ultimatum reflects a genuine concern about incomplete promotion placement, arrears and other unresolved teacher welfare matters.
The unions are right to demand accountability.
But the 31 August agreement already provides a framework for dealing with teachers who are not captured in the September payroll.
Its provisions include a January 2026 effective date, automatic placement by September and a supplementary payroll for teachers who remain outstanding at the end of September.
My position is therefore straightforward:
Let us respect the agreement.
If by early October the supplementary payroll does not come and teachers are still not on scale, the unions will have a clear basis to determine their next course of action.
For now, let the process run to the agreed deadline while the unions maintain pressure, demand transparency and protect the interests of every affected teacher.
The objective should not simply be to issue another deadline.
The objective should be to get every legitimately promoted teacher onto the correct salary scale, with the January 2026 effective date and corresponding arrears properly implemented.
About the Author
Ellis Ferdinand is an education policy analyst, curriculum specialist, researcher, educator and founder/editor of EducateGhana.com, Ghana’s Education Intelligence Platform.
His work focuses on Ghana’s education policy, teacher education, curriculum implementation, teacher welfare, education governance and educational research.
Editorial Note
Article Type: Opinion / Op-Ed
Published: 22 September 2026
Status: Commentary on a developing education-policy and labour-relations issue
The views expressed in this article are those of Ellis Ferdinand and are presented as an opinion analysis. The 31 August agreement referenced in the article provides for January 2026 as the effective date, September 2026 placement and a supplementary payroll for teachers not captured by the end of September.
EducateGhana distinguishes the author’s interpretation of the agreement from the positions subsequently expressed by the teacher unions and any response from government.
Sources
- 31 August 2026 communiqué on the meeting between the Teacher Unions and the Minister for Education.
- Ghana News Agency, Teacher unions satisfied with meeting over intended strike, 1 September 2026.
- EducateGhana.com, Teacher Promotion 2026: January Effective Date, September Placement, Automatic Placement.
- EducateGhana.com, GES Changes Effective Date for 2025 Promoted Teachers: Arrears Now From January 2026 Instead of July.
