The Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) Chairman, Solomon George Gbenga, has urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) to modernize its administrative and data management systems. This call aims to eliminate chronic delays in teacher promotions, salary processing, and placement errors. Mr. Gbenga highlighted these challenges on A1 Radio's Teachers' Caucus program, emphasizing the need for a more efficient system.
Mr. Gbenga pointed out that teachers face significant challenges, including payment delays for new recruits and systemic flaws in promotion examinations. He also noted the rising threat of scams targeting desperate candidates. To address these issues, Mr. Gbenga reassured upcoming candidates that teacher unions are taking proactive steps to prevent a recurrence of the 2025 batch's salary arrears.
The GNAT Chairman explained that previous delays stemmed from a shift away from automatic placement systems, leaving many teachers unsure of the required documentation. He stated that the 2026 batch will not face the same problems as the 2025 group. Mr. Gbenga emphasized the importance of early and accurate data submission, especially given broader fiscal policies aimed at controlling inflation that often slow down government releases.
Mr. Gbenga criticized the abandonment of GESMIS, a digital database platform previously developed by GES to track teacher qualifications and automate promotion eligibility prompts. The absence of a centralized, robust data infrastructure has created severe administrative bottlenecks. For instance, numerous teachers in districts like Talensi find their management units mistakenly registered under other areas, forcing them to travel long distances to sit for promotional exams.
Weak database controls have 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. Mr. Gbenga argued that a good system should automatically identify qualified personnel by rank and region.
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. This initiative aims to facilitate corrections in bulk. Mr. Gbenga is also pursuing discussions at GES Headquarters in Accra to seek relief for thousands of teachers unfairly excluded from recent promotion examinations due to system glitches.
For candidates who sat for the November 2 to 4 promotion papers and feel anxious about their performance, Mr. Gbenga offered words of encouragement and a warning against fraudsters. He reassured candidates that aptitude test pass marks fluctuate based on national quota allocations rather than raw percentages. Mr. Gbenga advised candidates to take advantage of free union tuition initiatives rather than falling victim to scammers demanding up to GH₵ 2,500 with promises of passing.
Key points
- The GNAT Chairman urges GES to modernize its data management system to address chronic delays in teacher promotions and salary processing.
- The absence of a centralized, robust data infrastructure has created severe administrative bottlenecks, including mistaken registrations and flawed promotion examinations.
- GNAT has declared a "Payslip Sensitization Month" to help resolve management unit mismatches and facilitate corrections in bulk.
