The Bolgatanga District Chairman of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Solomon George Gbenga, has called on the Ghana Education Service (GES) to modernise its administrative and data management systems to eliminate chronic delays in teacher promotions, salary processing, and placement errors.
Speaking on A1 Radio’s Teachers’ Caucus program, Mr. Gbenga highlighted major challenges confronting teachers across the region, ranging from payment delays for new recruits to systemic flaws in promotion examinations and the rising threat of scams targeting desperate candidates.
Addressing concerns over salary arrears experienced by the 2025 batch of newly promoted teachers, Mr. Gbenga reassured upcoming candidates that teacher unions are taking proactive steps to prevent a recurrence in 2026. He explained that previous delays stemmed from a shift away from automatic placement systems, leaving many teachers unsure of the required documentation.
“Let me put it on record that this 2026 batch will not face the problem of the 2025 group,” Mr. Gbenga stated. “Now that we are aware it is no longer automatic, the very day a teacher receives their promotion letter, we are insisting they complete all input forms at the district office immediately.”
He added that broader fiscal policies aimed at controlling inflation often slow down government releases, making early and accurate data submission critical.
Mr. Gbenga criticized the abandonment of GESMIS, a digital database platform previously developed by GES that tracked teacher qualifications, automated promotion eligibility prompts, and streamlined letter printing.
The absence of a centralized, robust data infrastructure has created severe administrative bottlenecks which include, numerous teachers in districts like Talensi find their management units mistakenly registered under other areas, such as Navrongo or Volta Region, forcing them to travel long distances just to sit for promotional exams.
Weak database controls allowed some applicants without required master’s degrees to sit for Director II and I exams, while qualified teachers were routinely left out. Teachers are still forced to manually apply for promotions every year despite GES already holding their employment history.
“This system of always asking people to apply for promotion is a thing of the past,” Mr. Gbenga argued. “In a technological world, a good system should automatically identify qualified personnel by rank and region. We need to dedicate this year to strengthening our database.”
To help resolve management unit mismatches, GNAT has declared an upcoming “Payslip Sensitization Month,” urging all teachers to inspect their payslips for errors in school names, regions, and management codes so corrections can be submitted in bulk.
Mr. Gbenga revealed that he is actively pursuing discussions at GES Headquarters in Accra to seek relief for thousands of teachers who were unfairly excluded from recent promotion examinations due to system glitches. He is advocating for a supplementary examination window once regional directorates review hard-copy submissions from affected teachers.
For candidates who sat for the November 2 to 4 promotion papers and feel anxious about their performance, the GNAT Chairman offered strong words of encouragement and a stern warning against fraudsters.
“Your standard of not doing well does not mean failure,” he reassured candidates, explaining that aptitude test pass marks fluctuate based on national quota allocations rather than raw percentages. “Do not be deceived into paying sycophants who are demanding up to GH₵ 2,500 with promises of passing you. The quota system takes overall performance into account; you may score 40 or less and still qualify. Take advantage of free union tuition initiatives rather than falling victim to scammers,” he admonished.
A1 Radio | 101.1Mhz | Solomon Agame
