Pre-tertiary education across Ghana has been thrown into sudden turmoil as three major teaching unions have jointly declared an immediate, nationwide strike over unresolved service conditions and unpaid allowances.
The National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) announced the decision at a joint press briefing in Accra.
Union leaders instructed all pre-tertiary educators across the country to immediately lay down their tools, vacate their classrooms, and await further instructions from leadership.
Speaking on behalf of the unions, PRETAG President King Ali Awudu disclosed that their collective conditions of service expired in June. He explained that despite continuous efforts since last year to negotiate a replacement agreement, talks with government authorities have produced no results.
The prolonged stalemate has sparked widespread anger and frustration among teachers, leaving union executives with no alternative but to order a total shutdown of teaching activities.
Several critical grievances triggered the industrial action, key among them being the failure to update expired service terms and a deeply unsatisfactory proposed ten percent increase to the current eight hundred cedi annual digital allowance.
Furthermore, an agreement to automatically place approximately eighty thousand teachers who passed aptitude tests in December 2025 and February 2026 onto their appropriate salary scales has been ignored, even as September payrolls were finalised.
Added to this is the non-implementation of a long-promised twenty per cent deprived-area allowance, an issue that has remained unresolved despite being under consideration since 2009.
In a direct appeal to educators, Mr Awudu stated that teachers should immediately leave school premises, return home to rest, and remain idle until leadership provides further directives.
The sudden withdrawal of teaching services leaves parents and public school students facing major disruptions as the nation awaits a formal government response to resolve the impasse.
