The Deputy Public Relations Officer of the Ministry of Education, Ernest Akosa, has said that it will be unfair to blame the Ministry or the Ghana Education Service (GES) for the teachers’ laptop brouhaha.
He states clearly that if anyone is to take the blame, the teachers’ unions must carry the blame.
He shared this sentiment on the Happy Morning Show when he was interviewed by host Samuel Eshun.
“The teacher unions are the forerunners in this policy and the Ministry and the GES are offering their support to these unions. Thus, the specification and capacity of the laptops are suggested by the unions,” he said.
According to him, he believes the teacher unions did not conduct an “extensive stakeholder consultation” before taking any decision. “So, if things didn’t go well in the teachers’ laptops distribution, blame the teacher unions but for GES and the Ministry, we have taken the steps needed to help the teacher unions,” he added.
Background
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.
Recent developments has it that teachers have been deducted GH₵509 from the teachers’ professional development allowance as part of the payment of the government’s one-teacher one laptop policy.
This has been met with mixed reactions from the teachers. For example, a group known as All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG), has announced its decision to embark on a demonstration to express its displeasure over the deduction.
The Innovative Teachers Association Ghana, however, believes demonstrating is a waste of time as there is pending court case on the matter.
By: Alberta Dorcas Naa Dedei James
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