28,000 teachers’ promotion arrears may require supplementary funding – Haruna Iddrisu

The government may consider a supplementary allocation to pay the outstanding promotion salary arrears of about 28,000 teachers and other staff whose claims have not yet been validated.

Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu said the government was considering the option alongside fresh processing of the claims, with the aim of paying the affected staff by mid-November or the end of November.

“What is outstanding is around twenty-eight thousand, which includes some non-teachers, who may not be able to get those payments beginning tomorrow (October 28) because (their) validation process has not been completed,” he said on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show on Tuesday, October 27.

“We cannot delay payment of salary across the country to validate them, so we may require a supplementary midway in November or just do it by the end of November,” he added.

Mr Iddrisu said the government had paid the promotion salary arrears of 52,000 teachers who successfully completed the validation process, out of approximately 80,000 people seeking payment.

He said his office would meet teacher union leaders by the close of Tuesday to discuss the outstanding payments and agree on the way forward.

The minister urged the affected teachers not to resume their strike, assuring them that the government was working to address their concerns.

The possible supplementary allocation is one of the options being considered to facilitate payment to those whose claims remain outstanding, while the government also considers reprocessing their claims to meet the proposed timeline.

The development follows the suspension of industrial action by teachers over delays in paying their promotion salary arrears.