In the wake of Ghana government’s quest to improve on living conditions of it labors in the education sector, Colleges of Education Teachers Association of Ghana (CETAG), as major stake holders who’s mandate is to birth out the next generation of teachers have boycotted their responsibilities.
This decision by CETAG stems from the Government of Ghana’s trepidation to fully carry through the National Labour Commission (NLC) arbitral award issued last year, May 2, 2025.
In the report of CETAG, their strike action has become imperative since their “persistent indifference, disregard for binding agreements and failure to honor obligations under the NLC arbitral award of May 2, 2023.”
On the back of CETAG’s indefinite strike action, Wednesday, 26 November, 2025, Minister in charge of Ghana’s Education Ministry, Hon. Haruna Iddrisu in a public outcry pleaded with the leadership of CETAG as he requested their return to the class room whiles promising to fulfill their demands.
“I have asked them to consider calling off the strike and giving us [government] two weeks to see what the state can do. It goes back to 2022, but we will fix it within the next two weeks. The ball is in their court.
“We are negotiating. There were issues for which the National Labour Commission made a declaration and award in CETAG’s favour, which have not been respected by the government since 2022. We will see how we can remedy the situation,” the minister iterated.
Stemming from the unrealized promises made by the sector minister last year, in an interview with the Tertiary Students Confederacy (TESCON) President of Accra College of Education (AcCE), Honourable Emmanuel Annor Essien propped up the decision made by the leadership of CETAG, asserting that, “It is quite unfortunate. this shouldn’t be happening – I also believe they are fighting for what they deserve.”
He alleged that, “it seem the NDC government always take delight in destroying our educational system. Why am I saying this, over the years, we’ve seen and experienced various delay in satisfying the financial needs of teachers or lectures.
“The government neglecting its duty of satisfying the financial needs of the lectures shows how this government care less about the future of the youth in this country,”
Honourable Emmanuel Annor Essien further advised government to ” do the needful in order to keep the lectures in the classroom. The lackadaisical attitude of the government in addressing the educational needs of Ghanaians must be handled with all seriousness.”
Who looses with this strike action?
Amidst this doubled sided opinionated strike action being underpinned by TTAG, teacher trainees in all the forty-six training colleges scatter across the length and breadth of Ghana have been left unaccounted for.
In the month of November, 2025, new entries were admitted by the colleges of education – after two enjoying two weeks of lecturing by the lectures, a strike action was rolled out, awakening a disrupted academic calendar hence, causing all colleges to announce an early Christmas break on the 12 of December, 2025.
Prior to the initial resumption date, the reopening date was shifted to the 9th of February, 2026, with an explanation from the leadership of TTAG, claiming that, ” following the latest engagements and indications to address the CETAG concerns, TTAG now strongly advises all Teacher Trainees to report to their respective colleges and resume academic activities as directed by the college authorities on Monday, February 9, 2026.”
Read full details of the letter released by TTAG:
This letter reechoed hope into teacher trainees as they were poised to begin an undisrupted 2026 academic calendar. Contrary to their initial thoughts, CETAG as of Wednesday, 11 February, 2026 are yet to rescind their strike action.
Students teachers are despair as some students have resorted to personal studies, others in group studies whiles most of them have either not reported or have returned back home after realizing there is no academic works ongoing.
This obviously can’t be on the wish-list of any government however, it will be appropriate for both the government and the leadership of CETAG to make a determination on the matter which points to the fact that, one party would have to compromise for the general good of the country.