Two Teacher Unions Innovative Teachers Alliance of Ghana (ITAG) and All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG) have kicked against the government’s one-teacher-one-laptop policy, citing lack of transparency and quality.
The trade unions are also against the cost-sharing module in the policy.
Teachers will be expected to bear 30 percent of the cost, while the government pays 70 percent for the laptops that will be provided by KA Technologies.
Have agree that teachers must be given laptops by the government as part of government responsibility in accordance with Section 9(a) of the Labour Law (Act 651).
Hence the distribution of quality laptops to teachers aught to have started in 2007 when President John Kufour introduced I.C.T as a subject.
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On the issue of transparency, the Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee,
Dr. Clement Apaak has expressed his concerns that the government has been unable to provide clear explanations on the total cost of the laptops.
According to the two unions, the price of the laptops keeps changing like a chameleon.
“With reference to GES Press release dated 9th September, 2021 the price of the laptop was GHS 1,831 and its 30% was GHS 549.
GES letter dated 26th October quoted GHS 509 as the price for the 30% component. What was the actual amount negotiated before KA Technologies started executing the contract?”.
Issues On The Laptop Quality
Mr. Ayensu has questioned the quality of the laptops. According to him, Teachers prefer Dell, Lenovo, Apple, Toshiba, Acer, Samsung, and other brands just like parliamentarians love Toyota V8 cars because what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
According to him, Teachers feel insulted that the Education Ministry does not think highly of same that is why it preferred a local company with no track record in the manufacturing laptops for the second time after the RLG debacle.
“The defunct RLG distributed laptops to selected schools and teachers in Ghana.
Since the laptops were substandard almost all of them broke down within a short time.
The laptops from KA TECHNOLOGIES that were distributed to some teachers not long ago have started breaking down.
One would have thought that the Education Ministry ought to have learnt lessons from the RLG fiasco and not repeat same with K.A TECHNOLOGIES GHANA LIMITED.
It has become obvious that the Ministry of Education will continuously insult teachers with laptops of suspicious quality which break down within a short time resulting in huge financial loss to the state.
The so-called laptops are like notepads. We can’t use it for anything”, the release added.
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About KA Technologies Ghana Limited
Upon thorough investigations, it has been uncovered by the Two Teacher Unions that;
K.A TECHNOLOGIES GHANA LIMITED does not have any track recond in manufacturing laptops in Ghana.
All the social media handles and website of the ‘ccmpany’ were all created in 2021 and the company does not have a landline.
K.A TECHNOLOGIES GHANA LIMITED was registered at the Public Procurement Authority on 4th November, 2021 and by SSNIT in November 2020.
The REGISTRAR GENERAL DEPARTMENT has also revealed after a search that KA TECHNOLOGIES GHANA LIMITED is not found in their database.
“One cannot fathom but wonder why a compamy that does not exist in the
database of REGISTRAR GENERAL DEPARTMENT was awarded this contract by the Ministry of Edacation”.
“We wrote to GHANA STANDARDS AUTHORITY and asked whether the GHANA STANDARDS AUTHORITY has certified the TMI laptops being distributed.
The GHANA STANDARDS AUTHORITY responded by saying that K.A TECHNOLOGIES GHANA LIMITED has not applied to GHANA STANDARD AUTHORITY for certification or quality evaluation its laptops”.
How did KA TECHNOLOGY get this contract to manufacture 280,000 laptops or 350,000 laptops at a time when its laptop has not been certified by Ghana Standards Authority?
In this case the Ministry of Education has supervised the distribution of uncertified laptops to teachers contrary to the laws of Ghana.
FULL DETAILS HERE
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