Stop teaching if you dislike the laptop – Teacher Union to teachers

The Coalition of Concerned Teachers (CCT), a member of the Teacher Unions in the country says teachers who are not interested in the laptops essentially procured by the government to improve teaching and learning can stop teaching.

CCT comment comes after some public school teachers yet to receive the government Teachers Mate 1 laptops described the computers the Ghana Education Service has said are of high quality and global brand as toys.

Speaking in an interview monitored by EducationWeb.com.gh, a member of the Coalition said the laptops loaded with educational content are resources by the Ghana Education Service (GES) to improve the teaching in the classroom.

He said the Teacher Unions (NAGRAT, GNAT and CCT- GH) met and negotiated with the Government of Ghana (GoG) for the state of the art new laptops to be distributed to kindergarten to Senior High Schools (SHSs) teachers

“We are not threatening the teachers but the fact is we the Unions negotiated for the laptops to help in teaching so if you don’t want the resource then you can stop teaching or go somewhere else,” the CCT member stressed.

Commenting on claims the TM1 laptops were purchased for GH¢550 each, the Concerned Teachers said that is not true adding that the over 400,000 teachers of the various Teacher Unions were informed about the procurement.

The Vice-President of Ghana, His Excellency Mahamudu Bawumia on September 3, 2021, launched the ‘One teacher, One Laptop’ project at the St Mary’s Senior High School to improve the requisite ICT skills of teachers in the country.

Dr Bawumia on behalf of the Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo led government presented over 350,000 brand new state of the art laptops to the Ghana Education Service (GES) to be distributed to all government teachers.

“This initiative, in collaboration with the Teacher Unions, is to support the vision of Ghana Education Service (GES) of creating an enabling environment to facilitate effective teaching and learning,” He stated at the launch held in Accra.

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According to Mr Bawumia, the laptops are preloaded with educational materials and with access to an E-Library equipped with books recommended by the Management of the Ghana Education Service on the various subjects.