Education Minister Expresses Distress Over Prolonged Non-payment Of Teachers' Salaries

Dr. Yaw Adutwum is the Minister of Education

With news that for the past seven months, some teachers in the country have not been paid their salaries, the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, has expressed his distress about the situation.

Giving his assurances that all such affected teachers would be paid soon, the minister however indicated that the situation should not have extended this long.

Earlier reports had indicated that some teachers had been complaining about how difficult it has been for them to access their salaries due to the delays in getting their biometric registration done.

The process is to help the teachers get their staff identification numbers but the process has been dragging.

Reacting to this development in a report put together by asaaseradio.com, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum said he feels sorry about the way things are.

“Tell them I apologize… This shouldn’t be the case. I have talked to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to send me the data on how many have their identity cards and how many do not have them. I am going to check when I get to the office to really see to this.

“… It is unfortunate. It shouldn’t be that anybody works for seven months, not just seven months, we are not getting the productivity from that person when they are not being paid. And the sad thing is that you end up paying them, and the productivity is lost,” he said.

The minister also indicated that meetings had been held among the appropriate stakeholders to ensure that in the future, monies of the teachers are not held back more than three months.

“… We have had discussions that it shouldn’t be more than three months. So I am very distressed by this; that teachers have not been paid for seven months. I don’t like teachers to be stressed out,” he added.

•ghanaweb.com