The National Labour Commission (NLC) has made some progress regarding negotiations with striking teachers.
At a crucial meeting in Accra, March 26, the Commission resolved three out of the nine concerns raised by the teacher unions.
These issues include the provision of laptops, the reinstatement of salaries blocked by the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP), and the establishment of terms of service for teachers.
The NLC clarified that negotiations will continue with teachers regarding the remaining six concerns.
Despite this headway, the striking unions are yet to back down.
This comes days after the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) declared a nationwide strike last week.
The Communications Officer for the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana, Adokwei Ayikwei Awuley, signaled a potential end to the nationwide strike in the coming days, following a series of negotiations with the government,
According to him, while some progress has been made, the strike will only be called off after further engagement with their respective councils.
the communications officer of CCT noted that even though the meeting with the government appears to be fruitful, they will only return to the classroom after engaging with the various teacher councils.
“We will start the main negotiation from tomorrow and we have told the commission that we are going to meet our various councils and then we will take it from there and call off the strike if the understanding is reached with them” he added.
Mr Awuley added that they have managed to resolve three key issues with the government.
However, the conditions of service remain a sticking point, with six unresolved items that are set to be negotiated.
“The issues as stated in our press release before we embarked on the strike remain the same. We have been able to trash out three of them; that is the issue of the scheme of service, where the Ghana Education Service has agreed that by April 8, they will present the draft to the teacher unions.
“Then we have also agreed per what the minister of education put before the committee that by June 2024, all teachers would have our laptops. Then the issue of those whose salaries were blocked by the Office of the Special Prosecutor, the minister said we should give him a month and he is going to resolve that issue, and we have also agreed to that one.
“The outstanding one is our conditions of service. We have six of them and the commission has directed that from today 2 PM we should sit and start negotiating for those allowances and in two weeks, we should report to the commission about the progress of the negotiation,” he stated.
