The Ghana Education Service has directed the Controller and Accountant Generals Department to Deduct an amount of Ghc509 from the Allowance of teachers payed in Every November and not their salaries.
The development has triggered several concerns with basic school teachers complaining that they haven’t received the laptops yet but had their monies deducted.
Meanwhile the Service has refunded an amount of Ghc100 back to teachers as license fee deducted. License fee was deducted in 2020 and should not be deducted every year, private schools are to renew their license in every 3 years after several concerns were raised.
Firstly, It was not the government’s intention to provide laptops for teachers.
Also, Ghana National Association of Teachers, National Association of Graduate Teachers and Coalition of Concerned Teachers, brought that request to government to procure laptops for teachers.
To add to that, These teacher unions mentioned in(2), requested the government to take 70% of the cost and for teachers to take 30% which was eventually agreed.
Furthermore, Government through the Ministry of Education, requested the above mentioned teacher unions to contract a company who will procure and customize the laptops for teachers.
In addition, They brought a company with no track record for the procurement.
Also, Government through the Ministry of Education hand no hand in determining the cost of the laptop per unit. All were negotiated by our teacher unions. The contract was then signed by all parties. The official cost per laptop was Ghc1,550.
Meanwhile, It was not initially compulsory but was made so because they sensed many teachers may opt out of the project. Mode of payment was to be in installment after receiving your laptop but it was later decided to deduct from our professional allowance.
Government 70% quota of the laptop was to be used as upfront payment for the procurement but it was not ready then, and still not ready now.
These teacher unions mentioned in (2) decided to go for a loan without consulting teacher to fund the laptops. There was an interest on the loan. These teacher unions urged government to take the interest on the loan but government was reluctant.
Lastly, instead of deducting Ghc465 as 30% component of Ghc1,550, they spread the interest for teachers to bear the cost, making a total deduction of Ghc509.
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