Rev Isaac Owusu, a former President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), has called for Education Minister, Haruna Iddrisu, to be reassigned, arguing that the minister is "struggling" to deal with challenges in the education sector.

In an interview on Adom FM monitored by GhanaWeb on Tuesday, September 29, 2026, Rev Owusu said he would have advised President John Dramani Mahama to move Iddrisu from the Education Ministry as part of the government’s Resetting Ghana agenda.

“If I were an advisor to the President, I would have advised President Mahama, as part of his Resetting Ghana agenda, to reassign Haruna Iddrisu from the Education Ministry. Although he is a solid leader, things are not going well; he is struggling at the Ministry” he said.

His comments come amid an ongoing nationwide strike by pre-tertiary teacher unions over outstanding promotion-related payments and other conditions of service.

The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT) and the Pre-Tertiary Teachers Association of Ghana (PRETAG) began the industrial action on Friday, September 25, 2026.

The unions are demanding, among other things, the payment of outstanding promotion allowances and arrears, as well as, the placement of promoted teachers on their appropriate salary grades.

On Monday, September 28, 2026, Iddrisu said the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) would meet the teacher unions on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, to continue negotiations on their collective agreement and conditions of service.

He made the announcement after a meeting between a government delegation and representatives of the teacher unions as part of efforts to resolve the strike.

Iddrisu said the discussions were open and focused on finding solutions to the concerns raised by the unions.

He also announced the formation of a validation committee to examine data relating to the government’s commitment to introduce a 20 percent deprived-area allowance for teachers.

According to him, the government remains committed to implementing the allowance from January 2027, subject to the validation of the relevant data and the development of a roadmap.

On the issue of promoted teachers who are yet to be placed on their new salary grades, the minister said the Director-General of the Ghana Education Service had been tasked to submit the relevant data to the Controller and Accountant-General’s Department for processing.

He said the process was intended to facilitate the payment of salaries on the new grades and the settlement of outstanding arrears.

The government has indicated that nearly 80,000 promoted teachers are affected by the salary placement issue, while data for about 29,000 teachers had already been captured for processing.

See the video below:

Haruna Iddrisu is struggling at the Education Ministry. He should be reshuffled to the Sports Ministry. - Rev. Isaac Owusu, Former President, GNAT#AdomSocials #BurningIssues #AdomOnline #AdomNews pic.twitter.com/lyxRDL7UEN

— Adom1063fm (@Adom1063fm) September 28, 2026