🚨 TEACHER PROMOTION ARREARS: WHY HARUNA IDDRISU WENT TO CHECK THE WORK HIMSELF

The issue of teacher promotion arrears remains one of the major concerns behind the ongoing nationwide strike by Ghana’s pre-tertiary teacher unions.

But while teachers continue to wait for their promotions to be reflected on their salaries, the government has been working to validate the records needed to move the process forward.

On Sunday, October 4, Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu visited the centre where officials were working on the promotion records of affected teachers.

His visit was not simply about observing the exercise.

The Minister wanted to know whether the work was progressing quickly enough to meet the government’s commitments to teachers.

And what he saw at the centre raised another important question.

TEACHER PROMOTION ARREARS: THE MINISTER WANTS THE WORK DONE QUICKLY

Government has set a deadline of 4:00 p.m. on Monday, October 5, 2026, for the Ghana Education Service (GES) to submit outstanding promotion data to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department (CAGD) for payroll processing.

The Education Minister has said the government expects the records of at least 51,000 teachers to be validated as part of the exercise.

Once the information is validated and submitted, arrangements can be made for supplementary payments.

According to the Minister, the first tranche of the outstanding payments is expected to be processed by October 16, while the government has committed to placing promoted teachers on their new grades and settling their promotion arrears by October 30, 2026.

That deadline is particularly important because promotion arrears are one of the issues that have contributed to the current industrial action.

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WHY DID HARUNA IDDRISU GO THERE HIMSELF?

The Minister’s visit comes at a critical point.

The government is trying to demonstrate that it is not merely making promises but is actively following the process that should eventually put affected teachers on their correct grades and get outstanding payments to them.

During his visit, Mr Iddrisu thanked officials for sacrificing their weekend to work on the exercise.

He urged them to work with speed and accuracy because the information being processed would determine how quickly eligible teachers could receive what is due to them.

The Minister also made a direct appeal to the teacher unions to consider ending the strike.

However, he acknowledged that promotion arrears are not the only issue.

The unions are also demanding progress on their collective agreement and other conditions of service.

The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission is expected to engage the teacher unions on Tuesday, October 6, on the collective agreement.

THEN THE MINISTER SAW THE PAPERWORK

This was perhaps the most striking moment during the visit.

As officials worked through large volumes of documents, the Minister questioned why teachers and officials should still be handling so much paperwork in an increasingly digital environment.

He asked why teachers should still be filling forms at a time when technology could potentially make the process faster and more efficient.

Mr Iddrisu called for a better information technology infrastructure to support the process.

His concern was not simply about convenience.

The current exercise involves the processing and validation of large numbers of teachers’ records. A more integrated digital system could potentially reduce the amount of physical paperwork involved, improve tracking and make it easier for authorised officials to identify and process legitimate cases.

The Minister said he would raise the issue with the relevant authorities.

TEACHER PROMOTION ARREARS: IS MANUAL PROCESSING PART OF THE PROBLEM?

This question deserves attention.

It would, however, be inaccurate to say that Ghana has no digital payroll system.

CAGD has explained that government payroll administration operates through HRMIS and IPPD2, with the Ghana Education Service responsible for submitting the necessary promotion information and supporting documents for processing.

CAGD has also explained that the required documentation is part of its payroll-control process.

As of September 22, CAGD said GES had submitted 6,079 completed input forms and corresponding promotion letters out of an expected 58,620 cases at that stage. CAGD said all 6,079 cases received had been processed and paid, including applicable arrears in the September salaries.

The disagreement, therefore, is not simply about whether technology exists.

The bigger question is whether the entire promotion-to-payroll process can be made more digitally integrated, while maintaining the verification and anti-fraud safeguards required by government.

That is the bigger issue raised by the Minister’s visit.

TEACHER PROMOTION ARREARS: THE SYSTEM MUST PROTECT AGAINST FRAUD

The Minister also expressed concern about fraud in salary administration.

That concern is important because government cannot simply process thousands of salary changes without proper verification.

CAGD has maintained that supporting documentation is necessary before salary adjustments can be processed. It has said that it can only process promotion-related salary adjustments after receiving the required documents from GES and validating them.

The challenge is therefore to find a way of combining speed, digital processing and strong verification.

A properly designed system could allow authorised officials to verify promotion records electronically, attach supporting documents digitally and maintain an auditable trail of approvals.

That could potentially reduce the movement of physical forms without weakening payroll controls.

READ RELATED RESOURCES HERE:  TEACHER UNIONS STRIKE CONTINUES AFTER GOVERNMENT TALKS END WITHOUT AGREEMENT

THE GES ALSO WANTS A FASTER DIGITAL PROCESS

The discussion about digital processing is not coming from the Education Minister alone.

GES Director-General Professor Ernest Kofi Davis has also indicated that electronic processing would be desirable, although he explained that the decision ultimately depends on CAGD.

This is significant.

It means the current conversation is moving beyond the question of who should submit which form.

It is becoming a broader question about how Ghana can redesign the administrative process so that teachers do not have to wait unnecessarily long for an approved promotion to translate into the correct salary.

READ RELATED RESOURCES HERE: STOP USING YOUR TEACHER SALARY TO BUILD: DO THIS INSTEAD

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT FOR TEACHERS?

For teachers affected by the promotion issue, the immediate focus is now on the data-validation exercise.

The government expects the relevant records to be processed and submitted so that the Controller and Accountant-General can begin the necessary payroll arrangements.

The government has said the first tranche of outstanding payments should be processed by October 16, while the broader commitment is to place promoted teachers on their new grades and settle the related arrears by October 30.

But the strike itself is not only about promotion arrears.

GNAT, NAGRAT and PRETAG have also raised concerns about the collective agreement and the implementation of the 20% deprived-area allowance.

The unions have therefore maintained that the wider issues must also be addressed before the industrial action can be resolved.

READ RELATED RESOURCES HERE: HOW SMART TEACHERS ARE QUIETLY BUILDING WEALTH

TEACHER PROMOTION ARREARS: WILL THIS VISIT CHANGE THE STORY?

For many teachers, the most important question is simple:

Will the work being done today finally translate into the money and salary grades they have been waiting for?

The Minister’s visit suggests that government is putting direct attention on the process.

But ultimately, teachers will judge the process by what appears on their payslips and accounts.

That is why today’s deadline, the October 16 supplementary-payment target and the October 30 commitment are important milestones.

The coming days should therefore provide a clearer indication of whether the government’s timetable can be achieved.

THE BIGGER QUESTION: CAN GHANA MAKE THIS PROCESS BETTER?

Perhaps the most important lesson from the Minister’s visit is not only about the current arrears.

It is about what happens the next time thousands of teachers are promoted.

If a teacher earns a promotion, the administrative process should be predictable.

The teacher should know what has been approved, what stage the record has reached, what documentation is outstanding and when the salary adjustment should take effect.

Technology could potentially make that journey much more transparent.

The Minister’s question — why are teachers still filling so many forms in a digital age? — therefore deserves serious consideration.

The answer should not be to remove the controls needed to protect the public payroll.

Rather, Ghana can look at how to digitise the controls themselves.

For teachers, that could mean less paperwork and fewer administrative delays.

For government, it could mean stronger data management, faster validation and better payroll accountability.

And for the education sector, it could help prevent a situation where teachers receive a promotion on paper but wait months for the corresponding salary adjustment.

READ RELATED RESOURCES HERE: 3 PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES EVERY TEACHER SHOULD FOLLOW

AS TEACHERS WAIT, THE CLOCK IS TICKING

The Education Minister has made a clear commitment.

The government says it wants the outstanding teacher promotion data processed, the first tranche of payments arranged by October 16 and the affected teachers placed on their new grades with their arrears addressed by October 30.

At the same time, the teacher unions are continuing to push for action on the wider issues behind the strike.

For now, the attention is firmly on the data-validation exercise.

Teachers are waiting. Government officials are working. The unions are watching. And the October deadlines are approaching.

What happens next could determine whether the current promises finally translate into concrete results for thousands of Ghanaian teachers.

SOURCE AND CREDIT: This article is based on footage of Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu’s visit to the teacher-data validation exercise, with additional verification from 3News, MyJoyOnline and the Ghana News Agency. Smart Teachers Avenue provides this publication for educational and public-interest reporting.

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