6,000 unpaid teachers issue final ultimatum to government over 15-month arrears

The Coalition of Unpaid Teachers has issued a final ultimatum to the government, threatening a return to the streets and a looming legal battle over nearly a year’s worth of unpaid salary arrears.

Despite a series of protests held throughout 2025, the group claims that over 6,000 teachers nationwide are being pushed into “abject poverty.”

The core of the grievance lies in a staggering discrepancy: many members have been at their posts for between 12 and 15 months but have received payment for only two months of service.

The threat comes just days after President John Dramani Mahama’s New Year message, in which he declared that 2026 would be a year to “accelerate and expand” the nation’s progress.

However, for the members of the Coalition, these promises ring hollow. Simon Kofi Nartey, the Lead Convenor of the Coalition, described the current situation as both “unfair and discriminatory” in an interview with Citi News.


“Some of us started work with colleagues who have received their salaries in full, while others are still going through this ordeal,” Nartey stated. “It is just unfair, and it calls for legal action to be taken against the government.”

The Coalition has outlined two primary requirements to avoid an immediate shutdown of classrooms:

Payment of Arrears: Immediate settlement of the remaining 10 to 13 months of unpaid salaries to alleviate “cost-of-living pressures.”

Staff Identification Cards: The immediate issuance of IDs to members who are yet to receive them. Nartey warned that failure to provide these IDs before the current month’s salary cycle could trigger a massive street demonstration.

“We are calling on our employer and the government at large to listen to us… so that we can all have our peace of mind to continue with the good work that we are doing for the country,” Nartey added.