NewzEducation Minister Haruna Iddrisu has directed the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to ask public universities to announce their reopening dates towards the weekend, as the government intensifies efforts to end the Ghana Association of University Administrators (GAUA) strike. He expressed optimism that the association would suspend the industrial action in the coming days to allow academic activities to resume across public universities. Mr Iddrisu made the remarks on Monday, October 12, 2026, after a meeting with the leadership of GAUA and the Technical University Senior Administrators Association of Ghana (TUSAAG), alongside GTEC.
The strike has disrupted administrative operations at public universities, forcing the University of Ghana (UG) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) to postpone their scheduled reopening dates. Govt seeks to protect academic calendar Mr Iddrisu said the government wanted universities to reopen before the end of the week so academic work could resume on Monday. “It is my expectation that the universities can reopen towards the weekend and not later than the weekend so that academic work can begin on Monday so that we don’t lose the academic calendar to the strike and its impact,” he said.
He described the current academic calendar as the best Ghana had experienced in five years and said the government would do everything possible to protect it. “Understandably, we have never come across a good academic calendar like this in the last five years. We will do everything possible to preserve the calendar,” he added.
However, the proposed reopening timeline depends on further consultations between the associations and their members, as no decision to suspend the strike had been announced at the time of the meeting. The Education Minister clarified that his role in the discussions was to facilitate a resolution on behalf of the government rather than negotiate salaries directly. “As I’ve indicated, the Minister for Education has no mandate for salary negotiations.
I’m only facilitating on behalf of government,” he said. He acknowledged that disagreements could arise between government and workers even though government was the employer of GAUA and TUSAAG members. “But you have to recognize that government remains the employer of the entire membership of GAUA and TUSAAG.
Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu says Ghana’s academic calendar is currently in its best state in a decade, citing efforts to align the schedules of universities and other levels of education.He said the government was committed to protecting the calendar to ensure predictability and a smoother transition for students moving from senior high school to university.Mr Iddrisu made the remarks during a visit with his Deputy Minister, Dr Clement Apaak, to Osu Preby Boys’ Primary School to assess the situation following the suspension of the teachers’ two-week strike.“The essence of my visit with my Deputy Minister is to let the Ghanaian public know that in the last five, 10 years, we’ve never had a good academic calendar like we have now,” he said. He explained that the current arrangement had aligned the academic calendar across different levels of education, with schools resuming in September.“We do everything to preserve and protect the academic calendar for predictability and aligning it with the universities in particular,” he added.According to the Minister, maintaining a stable calendar would help ensure that students completing senior high school could proceed to university without unnecessary delays once their results were released.His comments come after the suspension of the two-week strike by teacher unions, which disrupted academic activities in public pre-tertiary schools.Mr Iddrisu and Dr Apaak also interacted with students and teachers during the visit.
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