Teachers must have their laptops by December 31 — GES told

Three Teacher Unions have asked the Ghana Education Service (GES) to deliver laptops to all teachers whose 30 per cent contributions have been deducted by close of Friday, December 31, 2021.

The Unions also appealed to government to absorb the interest charges on the 30 per cent contribution that had accrued on the Ghana Education Service Occupational Pension Scheme (GESOPS) pre-financing.

The Teacher Unions are: Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and Coalition of Concerned Teachers, Ghana (CCT-GH).

Ms Phillapa Larsen, the National President of Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), was addressing a joint press conference to highlight issues on Government's One Teacher One Laptop Project.

She said on February 11, this year, a Laptop Computer Pre-financing Agreement was entered between the GES acting on behalf of the Ministry of Education and the GESOPS.

She noted that per the pre-financing agreement, the cost per teacher was GHS549.44 as a result of the 18.16 per cent interests rate on the initial cost of GHS465.00.

"The price further reduced to GHS509.44 due to the intervention of the Unions and Minister of Education, who indicated the 18.16 per cent cannot be charged on the entire 30 per cent (GHS 465) portion of the Teachers.

" Thereafter, the GES, in a letter to the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, stated that the 30 per cent of the cost of the laptop worked up to GHC509.00. The presumption was that this statement by GES was on behalf of the Ministry of Education," she added.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in his 2021 State of the Nation address, acknowledged that the teacher was the centre of every reform in education.

He then, announced that the Government was facilitating the acquisition of 280,000 laptops for teachers.

Ms Larsen said prior to Government announcement, GNAT had already advocated for One-Teacher-One- Laptop in 2020 launch of its research work on the "Impact Assessment of COVID-19 on the Education Sector in Ghana: The Perspectives of GNAT.

That advocacy, she said, was laid before the National Council of GNAT at its general meeting at Kumasi, and was adopted and subsequently included in the Communiqué, which asked government to expedite action on One Teacher, One Laptop project, to enhance efficient delivered very in the classroom.

She said NAGRAT and CCT-GH had also engaged their Councils on the project.

GNA