The Management of the Ghana Education Service (GES) shortly after commencing an intensive ICT training on TM1 laptops to be distributed to public basic school teachers in the country has suspended the nationwide workshop.
Citing no reason for the postponement, it in a release said “we will like to inform you that the online ICT training in connection with the One Teacher One Laptop initiative scheduled for 16th February 2022 has been put on hold.”
The Education Service in the statement copied to EducationWeb said it will liaise with suppliers of the state of the art laptops, K. A Technologies (KAT) and Microsoft to communicate a new date suitable for the nationwide training.
“In collaboration with K. A Technologies (KAT) and Microsoft, Ghana Education Service (GES) will have further deliberation and discussion to come up with a new date and timeline,” the GES Deputy Director said in the release.
The suspension comes after Agency under the Ministry of Education early this week in a letter to Regional Education Directors, instructed all basic school teachers to attend the online training workshop starting from February 16.
“All teachers are expected to undergo some basic ICT training to help them use the various e-learning resources that have been made available on the laptops“, the Management of the Ghana Education Service said in the letter.
Scheduled from 2 pm to 6 pm with three sessions each lasting 2hrs, GES said participants of the workshop will receive points for their Continuous Professional Department (CPD) and a certificate upon completion and assessment.
GES responsible for recruiting teachers last year indicated about 260 Ghana Education Service District ICT coordinators have been trained with certified Microsoft ICT tools to provide technical support to teachers on the laptop.
“The TM1 laptops have a training component; so far, 260 GES District ICT coordinators have been trained with certified Microsoft ICT tools to provide technical support for teachers,” the Education Service noted in the press release.
Meanwhile, the Ghana Education Service (GES) after completing the distribution of the state of the art laptops to secondary school teachers is yet to begin distribution of the TM1 machines to public basic school teachers.
According to the Service, 62,000 laptops as of December 10, 2021, have been distributed to Senior High School teachers. The first phase of the distribution of the government teachers laptops ended on December 17, 2021.