It has emerged that each teacher will pay GHS 547 as the 30% cost under the government’s one-teacher one laptop policy while the State takes up 70%.
The President of the National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), Angel Eric Carbonu, revealed this on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem show.
According to him, these monies will not be deducted from the salaries of the beneficiaries but from an annual GHS 1,200 special allowance given to professional teachers.
“We were paid this allowance last year and that was what our people used GHS 100 to pay their licensure exam so there is no need for the beneficiaries to worry about the deductions,” he said.
Mr Carbonu explained the arrangement was recommended by the three teacher unions; Ghana National Association of Teachers, Coalition of Concerned Teachers and National Association of Graduate Teachers which the government agreed to.
Meanwhile, a group calling itself Innovation Teachers Association has kicked against the initiative over what it described as an inflated cost of the laptops which brand is not popular.
It argues the government should have considered Acer, Del, or Toshiba which are popular brands instead of the Teachers Mate 1 (TM1) laptops.
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But reacting to the claims, Mr Carbonu stated that would not be a problem for them as there are only three recognised teacher unions in the country.
He stressed brands and preferences cannot play out in the initiative, adding people have different choices to make which will increase the 30% cost to be borne by them.
The Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, on Friday, launched and handed over 350,000 laptops under the ‘One Teacher One Laptop’ programme.
This is in fulfillment of the government’s pledge to equip Ghana’s teachers with the requisite Information and Communications Technology skills to prepare the next generation for the Fourth Industrial revolution.
The laptop, however, becomes the personal property of the teacher and serves the benefit of providing a tool for developing the teacher’s professional and personal capacity.
