Over 50,000 teachers promoted and payroll issues resolved – GNAT
About 50,458 teachers out of the 54,227 teachers who were successful in last year’s aptitude test have been promoted, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), a pre-tertiary teacher union, has disclosed.
In addition, GNAT in a letter sighted by Pretertiary.com said 1,417 out of 1,579 teachers removed from the government payroll have also had their salaries reactivated, with only the remaining 162 yet to be impacted.
“We can confirm that out of the 54,227 teachers who were successful in the 2024 aptitude test for promotion, 50,458 have been placed on their correct grades in April 2025
The outstanding, together with the backlog of the 2023 batch, to be placed in May 2025,” the letter signed by the General Secretary of Ghana National Association of Teachers, Thomas Musah, said to members of the association.
On lower rank promotions, the teacher union said as of last Friday, the Ghana Education Service (GES) had informed the unions that all 16 regions had submitted the data, and the placement would be effected in May 2025.
Regarding the upgrading relative to returnees from further studies, the Ghana National Association of Teachers letter indicated that “a significant number of teachers in this category had not been upgraded since 2023.”
The pre-tertiary teacher union said the promotion of 50,458 teachers and the resolution of the payroll issues followed a meeting with the management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) on Friday, April 25, 2025.
The communique to members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) said it had been agreed that all returnee teachers from further studies would be upgraded by the end of May 2025.
“The Director-General of Ghana Education Service (GES) has promised to write to the Regional Directors to ensure that the upgrading is done without fail,” it said.
A stakeholders meeting, the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) told members, would be held in May 2025, to fix dates for the next aptitude test for promotion.
It said all the outstanding issues in the Collective Agreement for Ghana Education Service (GES) staff would be addressed next month, prominent among them being the salary disparities on the Single Spine Pay Structure.
The teacher union consequently expressed gratitude to President John Mahama for the 20 per cent allowance for teachers in deprived areas.
“The Teacher Unions express our gratitude to His Excellency the President of the Republic for his pronouncement on its payment, following the understanding that work on it is to be done, commencing May 2025,” the letter said.
With regard to the decoupling of Director 2 and Director 1, it said: “We again express our gratitude to His Excellency for the decoupling of Director 2 and subsequently Director 1 from being coterminous with political districts and regions, thus paving the way for the promotion of Deputy Directors to Director 2, and subsequently Director 1.
The GNAT letter to its members further commended President John Dramani Mahama for the supply of free sanitary pads to female learners, and expressed the hope that it would attain the envisaged outcomes.
“We wish to assure our members that the unions, together with the relevant parties, are working tirelessly to conclude discussions on all other issues, and we shall not fail you,” the Ghana Teachers Association stated.
Speaking to the Daily Graphic newspaper, the General Secretary of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, Thomas Musah, said the new development was a breakthrough between the government and teachers.
“We would like to express our profound gratitude to the President, at least, for his timely intervention,” he said.
He said since the issues came up, the Ghana Education Service (GES) had been very forthcoming and expressed the hope that by next month, “we will be able to resolve the issue”.
