The Director-General of the Ghana Education Service, Dr. Eric Nkansah, has said his outfit is working to ensure no teacher eligible for the One Teacher One Laptop Programme is denied the gadget in the ongoing nationwide distribution mop-up.
He gave the assurance in Kumasi on Friday when he supervised the distribution of computer laptops for teachers, otherwise known as Teachers’ Mate 1 (TM1), to some teachers in the Kumasi Metro in the Ashanti Region.
According to the GES Boss, even though almost 90% of eligible teachers nationwide have received their Laptops, everything possible is being done to ensure a 100 percentage coverage of all teacher beneficiaries.
His comments follows a similar assurance by the Minister for Education, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum that by the end of the mop up next month, all teachers will benefit from the initiative.
Dr. Nkansah commended teachers for their patience and said many more districts in the region will undertake distribution exercises in the coming days until all teachers are given their due.
The government is said to have so far distributed a total of two hundred and eighty thousand nine hundred and three (280,903) laptops to teachers across the country as of June this year.
The figure leaves some thirty-four thousand five hundred and sixty-two laptops yet to be distributed, which are earmarked to be given out in a nationwide mop-up exercise which commenced on 15th June and is expected to end on 30th July 2024.
Among those to benefit from the outstanding distribution are 21,482 primary school teachers, 3,402 teachers on study leave, and 9,678 staff of the Ghana Education Service (GES).
The government of Ghana, in its quest to enhance education delivery through information technology, launched the One Teacher One Laptop programme to highlight the importance of ICT-mediated Teacher Professional Development (TPD).
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia launched the initiative in September 2021 under an aggressive programme to strategically influence teaching and learning outcomes in pre-tertiary educational institutions nationwide.
Under the programme, every teacher in public schools from kindergarten to senior high school is to receive a laptop to aid them in teaching, lesson preparation, research, and learning.
The government will pay 70% of the cost of the laptop, while each teacher pays the remaining 30%.
K A Technologies, a locally based ICT firm, is the manufacturer of the laptops.
Checks have revealed that some 92,071 primary school teachers nationwide have so far received laptops, while 91,678 and 62,292 of their counterparts in junior high schools and senior high schools respectively have benefited from the initiative. The number of kindergarten teachers who have received laptops stood at 34,859 as of the time of filing this report.
On a regional basis, the Ashanti Region tops the list with 54,852 beneficiary teachers, followed by the Eastern Region with 31,892 teachers, 27,514 in the Central Region, 22,666 teachers in the Greater Accra Region, and 20,584 teachers in the Volta Region.
The Savannah Region has so far received the least number of laptops, going to some 3,859 teachers in the region.
It is expected that by 30th July 2024, every teacher in public schools, including those on study leave and selected GES staff, will have received their laptops.
Many education watchers, including teacher unions and education think tanks, have commended the government for the initiative, describing it as a demonstration of the willingness on the part of the Government of Ghana to shift toward ICT-based teaching and learning.
The laptops also allow teachers to easily access digital online training through National Teaching Council-approved modules, reducing the barriers to digital tools so that teaching remains in line with National Teachers Standards across the country.
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