GNAT members stage walkout on deputy education minister over failure on One Teacher One Laptop promise

Deputy Minister of Education, Prof. Kingsley Nyarko

The National Council of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) staged a walkout on Deputy Minister of Education, Prof. Kingsley Nyarko, and their national leadership.

The protest was in response to the government's failure to fulfill its promise of providing each teacher with a laptop, despite deducting 30% from teachers' salaries in 2021 for the “One Teacher One Laptop” project.

During their annual national council meeting in Kumasi, GNAT members expressed their frustration and anger over the unfulfilled promise.

The walkout prevented Prof. Nyarko from delivering his speech on behalf of the government.

Chants of “Away! Away! No laptop no council meeting!” echoed through the hall as council members made their demands clear.

The initiative, which was supposed to equip all teachers across the country with laptops, has left over 50,000 teachers without the promised devices.

Sarfo Sarpong, District Chairman of GNAT-Afigya Kwabre, voiced the concerns of many, highlighting that some teachers, particularly those in kindergarten, education officers, Arabic teachers, and primary school teachers, are yet to receive their laptops.

“The absence of these laptops is adversely impacting teaching and learning, especially in remote areas.

“The national curriculum for our teaching has been uploaded onto the laptops, and we need them to aid with teaching,” he stated.

The walkout follows a nationwide strike by GNAT and two other teacher unions in May, demanding better service conditions.

Despite the National Labour Commission mediating and setting a June deadline for the government to fulfill its part of the contract, the promised laptops have not been delivered.

As of July 22, the teachers report that there are still over 50,000 laptops left to be supplied.

District chairpersons like Evans Temetey of Manya Krobo expressed frustration over the government's priorities.

“Some teachers have to do this manually. We claim to be digitalizing, what’s about the teaching space? They’ve decided to give tablets to the students when we, teachers, need them for teaching” he told myjoyonline.com

The frustration has even led to near-attacks on local leaders by their members, who are demanding the promised laptops.

One district chairperson shared their experience, “I went for BECE monitoring and the teachers attacked me, demanding where their laptops were. It is really embarrassing to have someone who has only spent 4-years in the teaching profession insult me who has been in this for close to two decades.”

GNAT has given the government a one-week ultimatum to begin distributing the outstanding laptops.