The National Council of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) on Monday, July 22, 2024, staged a walkout on Deputy Education Minister Prof. Kingsley Nyarko and their national leadership over unfulfilled promises.

The walkout was in response to the government's failure to deliver on its promise to provide a laptop to each teacher across the country.

In 2021, the government deducted 30% of teachers’ salaries to fund the “One Teacher, One Laptop” project. However, teachers claim that over 50,000 of their colleagues nationwide have not received their laptops despite having paid for them.

During the annual national council meeting in Kumasi, some teachers and GNAT council members booed Deputy Minister Prof. Kingsley Nyarko, preventing him from delivering his speech on behalf of the government.

Chanting “Away! Away! No laptop, no council meeting!” the council members expressed their frustration, leading to the disruption of the opening ceremony.

The teachers demanded that the government fulfill its “One Teacher, One Laptop” initiative.

“Over two and a half years now, some of our members haven’t received their laptops. Mainly some teachers at the kindergarten, education officers, the Arabic teachers, and some primary school teachers,” Sarfo Sarpong, District Chairman of GNAT-Afigya Kwabre was quoted in a report by Myjoyonline.com as speaking on behalf of the group.

“The National Labour Commission, serving as a mediator, gave the government until the end of June to honour its part of the contract by supplying the outstanding laptops. Today, July 22, there are still over 50,000 laptops left to be supplied,” Sarfo Sarpong added.

According to the teachers, absence of the laptops is impacting teaching and learning, especially in remote areas. They assert that the national curriculum for their teaching has been uploaded onto the laptops, and they need them to aid with teaching.

“Some teachers have to do this manually. We claim to be digitalizing, but what about the teaching space? They’ve decided to give tablets to the students when we, teachers, need them for teaching,” said Evans Temetey, District Chairperson for Manya Krobo.

The group has given the government a one-week ultimatum to commence the process of distributing the outstanding consignment of laptops noting that the delay has put the lives of leaders at risk of attack.

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