The Association of Aggrieved teachers has disputed claims by President Nana Akufo-Addo that teachers have been paid their legacy arrears.

According to the association, all efforts to have the government pay the arrears owed its members have proven futile.

The group in a statement said, “We write with much pains in our heart to hear our president at the 6th Quadrennial (53rd) GNAT delegate conference held in Kumasi on 5th January 2022 say that his government has cleared all legacy arrears.”

“We don’t want to say our president is a liar, but in all sincerity, we the affected teachers are yet to receive this promised legacy arrears.”

The association posed some questions to the president following his claim that the arrears had been fully cleared by the government.

“If our president purports to have paid this legacy arrears, then, he should please answer these questions for the public; When did he pay? Which year batch did he pay to? How did he pay it?”

“The legacy arrears fight continued in 2020 where writing of letters, consultations and engagement were made with the various stakeholders, yet, nothing good came out of it.”

“On the eve of 2020 elections (6th December), one Madam Mary Owusu called our PRO (Mr Kweku Tabiri Effah) to inform him that; the money has been paid into our accounts. We checked, and it was the salary arrears that he owed the 2016-year batch that he paid and even with that, he couldn’t pay them all. So, which legacy arrears is our indefatigable president talking about? We even forwarded our grievances to CHRAJ of which acknowledgement was made that they are working on our case, Parliament was petitioned as well.”

The association said it is ready to go the extra mile in all legitimate means to retrieve “our hard-earned money.”

It wants the government to stop aggravating the plights of teachers by spreading falsehood and focus on fulfilling its financial obligations.

Teacher unions in the country — the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) — have all, on several occasions, threatened to lay down their tools over the failure of the government to pay the legacy arrears.

The arrears, which include over two years’ salary and promotion arrears, as well as allowances of some public school teachers, have sparked a series of demonstrations in the education sector.