Pay fully for ‘1 teacher, 1 laptop’ initiative or keep them – CCT tells govt

The Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT) has cautioned the government to fully fund the government’s ‘One Teacher, One Laptop’ programme for public teachers.

Spokesperson for the CCT, Norbert Gbogbotsi, who was speaking on Tonton Sansan on TV XYZ indicated that the initiative was laudable but it would be more appropriate if the Akufo-Addo-led government funded it wholly.

The concerns of the teacher union were on the back of the World Teachers Day celebration on Tuesday.

Gbogbotsi said teachers are suffering due to the bad working conditions, thereby discouraging many from joining the profession.

Throwing more light on the bad conditions, which he noted included meagre salaries, the outspoken teacher waded into the laptop project which is being partly funded by GETFund.

There is a policy that every government teacher gets a laptop computer; but how come the government wants us to pay for the laptop?”: he quizzed.

“I am a worker for you so why let me pay for the tools I am using to do the work you have assigned me? We won’t tolerate that nonsense,” he added. “Once I am working for you, you have to get me the tools to work effectively.”

The Administrator of GETFund, Dr. Richard Ampofo Boadu, joined Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia, the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Adutwum, and other dignitaries for the launch of the ‘One Teacher, One Laptop’ programme at St Mary’s SHS in Accra on Friday 3rd September 2021.

The programme aims at providing over 350,000 laptops to Ghanaian teachers in fulfilment of the government’s pledge to equip teachers with the requisite ICT skills.

But the CCT has registered its displeasure at the approach, citing a lack of proper direction. Gbgbotsi said, “The government must pay for the laptops and regulate their usage…It is in the labour act that everything the worker uses to work must be provided by the employer and not the employee.”

“Teachers are really suffering,’ he said while blaming the leadership of the various teacher unions for the plights of teachers in the country.

He said if the leadership had listened to their members, the project would have been initiated in such a way that teachers would have applauded the government for it.

“Everybody wants to opt out of the teacher groups because they do not listen to the members. You can ask members of the teacher unions: GNAT, TEWU, NAGRAT and the rest and they will tell you they want to leave the unions.”

“They want to leave the groups because the teacher unions are not representing the members enough…whatever the union leaders will advocate must reflect the classroom but unfortunately that is not happening,” he added.