Following several ongoing challenges that have led to a nationwide strike, negotiations between the teacher unions, the government, and the Labour Commission on Tuesday 26th March, 2024, have resulted in significant progress.
The CCT President, King Ali Awudu, has provided an updates on the outcomes of the discussions, which have addressed three out of the nine key issues raised by the unions.
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The first issue addressed pertains to the provision of laptops for teachers. It has been agreed that teachers who have not yet received their laptops must be provided with them by the end of June 2024. Failure to meet this deadline may lead to a larger strike action.
The second issue focuses on the Scheme of Service within the Ghana Education Service (GES). The GES has committed to presenting a drafted Scheme of Service to the teacher unions for review by April 8th.
The third issue tackled relates to teachers whose salaries have been blocked by the Special Prosecutor. The GES has pledged to resolve this matter within one month, ensuring that affected teachers receive their rightful salaries.
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While progress has been made on these three matters, negotiations on the remaining six issues will continue on Wednesday, March 27th, 2024, at 2 PM.
The unresolved matters include several allowances that the unions are advocating for. First, the Continuous Professional Allowance should be increased to ₵3000 annually, rather than the current ₵1200.
Additionally, there is a request for a 20% allowance of basic pay for teachers posted to deprived areas as Deprived Area Allowance.
Other allowances include a 15% rent allowance, 15% transport or commuting allowance, a utility subsidy allowance of 15% of basic pay, and a Teaching Assessment Allowance of 15% of basic pay.
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The latter is particularly relevant as it acknowledges the additional work teachers undertake outside regular school hours, such as marking exercises.
Negotiations will reconvene on Wednesday, March 27th, with the aim of finding mutually beneficial resolutions to these outstanding issues.