Group to protest GHS509 deduction from teachers’ allowance for laptops

A teacher union calling itself All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG), has announced its decision to embark on a demonstration to express its displeasure over the deduction of GHS 509 from the teachers' professional development allowance for the payment of the government's one-teacher one laptop policy.

The demonstration, slated for December 15, 2021, seeks to draw the attention of the Ghana Education Service to immediately refund the deducted money.

According to the association, the deduction is being done without recourse to a court process seeking to halt the distribution.

The General Secretary of All Teachers Alliance Ghana, Albert Dadson Amoah, in a Citi News interview said “on 15th December 2021, they should prepare for us. Teachers are minimizing themselves. We want to use this forum to call on GES once again to immediately refund the GHS 509 to teachers.”

“Besides, there are some GES workers who are not teachers, there are the cleaners, cooks, etc. Some earn as little as GHS 700 and the government has gone ahead to deduct GHS 509 from their salaries. How are these people expected to survive?”

He lamented that GES has “disrespected teachers for so long, and they are going to stage a demonstration to protest this decision.”

Meanwhile, the Founder of the Innovative Teachers Association Ghana, Stephen Desu, says the decision by ATAG and other teacher unions to embark on a demonstration is unnecessary since there is a pending court case on the matter.

“We will concentrate on the court issue and not waste our time demonstrating. We disagree with the step they intend to take.”

Under the One teacher, One laptop policy, the government required that teachers pay 30 percent of the cost of GHS 1,550 through deductions from their salaries while it paid 70 percent.

—citinewsroom