Yesterday was World Teachers’ Day.
Around the world, countries and communities celebrated teachers as the bedrock of every profession.
In Ghana, the day coincided with the 2026 Ghana Teacher Prize Award ceremony, where an English Language teacher at Mangoase Senior High School (SHS) in the Eastern Region, Abigail Agyeiwaa, yesterday emerged as the Overall Outstanding Teacher for 2026.
For her prize, Ms Agyeiwaa received a three-bedroom house worth GH¢700,000.
Hammond Agyen of Manhean Anglican ‘D’ Primary School in Tema was the first runner-up, while James Kwabo Sekyi also emerged as the second runner-up in the teaching category.
For his prize, Mr Agyen was presented with a brand-new 4x4 pick-up vehicle, while Mr Sekyi took home a brand new saloon car.
The Daily Graphic commends the hundreds of thousands of teachers across the country whose sweat and toil have tremendously helped in shaping the destinies of millions of schoolchildren and learners through basic, secondary and tertiary levels.
Sadly, on the flip side, our teachers are not in class.
They are on the streets, or at home, on an indefinite strike.
The timing is a painful irony that should shame us all.
For days now, the three major teacher unions — the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) — have withdrawn their services.
Pupils in public basic and second cycle schools are loitering.
Candidates preparing for next year’s WASSCE are unattended.
Parents are anxious.
The teachers’ grievances are not new.
They are about unpaid promotion arrears, delays in staff ID processing that leave newly recruited teachers without salaries for months, disparities in allowances, lack of textbooks and teaching materials after curriculum reforms, poor conditions in rural postings, and a general feeling that their profession is being disrespected.
The government says it is committed to dialogue.
The unions say they have dialogued for too long with little to show. Who suffers? The Ghanaian child. And that is why this strike, on this day, must force a national reset in how we treat teachers.
We celebrate teachers in words every October 5. Politicians praise them as “nation builders.”
We organise awards, give citations; a few get a fridge, a laptop, a car.
Then for the rest of the year, we neglect them.
Let us be honest: teaching in Ghana today has become a survival job, not a career of dignity.
A young teacher posted to a deprived community in Avenor’s outskirts or deep in the hinterlands of Krachi often has no accommodation, no electricity, no water.
He teaches a class of 70 pupils with no textbooks.
He writes his promotion application and waits two years for the arrears.
He is told to implement a new curriculum he was trained for in three days.
And then we wonder why the best leave.
Why teachers abandon the classroom for more lucrative jobs.
Why our learning outcomes are falling.
The recent reports on literacy among primary pupils are not about lazy pupils.
They are about a broken support system for those who teach them.
The Daily Graphic has consistently argued that education is the one sector where we cannot afford labour agitations.
When doctors strike, lives are at risk.
When teachers strike, the future is at risk.
But we must also hold the mirror to government.
The Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the Ghana Education Service, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Finance must realise that teacher welfare cannot be managed through endless negotiations and incremental releases.
Salary issues are not favours; they are contractual obligations.
If promotion arrears are due, they must be budgeted for and paid on time.
If new teachers are recruited, their IDs must not take nine months to process while they work hungry.
If allowances are agreed, they must be honoured.
On the other hand, the unions also have a responsibility.
An indefinite strike, especially at this critical moment in the academic calendar, inflicts maximum damage on the very children they have dedicated their lives to serve.
The children of the rich are in private schools, unaffected.
The children of the poor, in public schools, bear the brunt.
We cannot negotiate the same issues every year.
The classrooms are empty today.
Our teachers are angry.
Our children are waiting.
Let us bring teachers back to the classroom with dignity.
The best gift we can give them today is not another long speech.
It is a payslip that reflects their value, and a classroom that enables their work.
We hope that next year, we will celebrate Teachers' Day with teachers in school, not on strike.
