The General Secretary of the All Teachers Alliance Ghana (ATAG), Albert Dadson Amoah, has intimated that teacher unions in Ghana have given the government up to Wednesday, December 22, 2021 to refund the deductions of GH¢509 from their Professional Development Allowance or they will embark on a protest.
Speaking on the issue, Albert Amoah indicated that per the intended demonstration, teachers would mass up across the country to express their displeasure against the deduction for what they termed as ‘sub-standard laptops’.
The General Secretary of ATAG blamed the current controversies surrounding the teachers laptop on the inactivity of the Ghana Education Service.
“We wrote to them to receive our inputs. We petitioned the Minister [of Education] but there was no reply. We went to CHRAJ and later resorted to the court to stop [government] from deducting such an amount from our Professional development Allowance. If by next Wednesday the monies have not been refunded into our accounts, all teachers and other unions will embark on demonstration again across the country”.
Albert Amoah
Albert Amoah disclosed that GNAT, NAGRAT and others who joined their previous demonstration have promised to join again next week Wednesday. He indicated that they will be massing up at the regional education offices across the country.
“We have directed Central, Ashanti and Eastern regions to embark on demonstrations in their regional education offices and union offices. Members will also lock up our offices. As for the demonstration they should prepare for more until our monies are refunded”.
Albert Amoah
Protest cause
The teacher Unions protest stems from government deducting one month of GH¢509 from the Professional Development Allowance of all teachers at the basic and secondary levels in the country towards the government’s ‘One Teacher One laptop’ policy.
Per the arrangement, the government was to pay 70 percent of the cost of the laptop while the teachers pay the 30 percent themselves through deductions from Professional Development Allowance. This raised eyebrows as some teachers explained the deductions were not justifiable because they were not consulted.
According to the Alliance, other concerns being raised by the teachers are that, the laptops were substandard while non-teaching staff have also been deducted.
Earlier, this compelled the All Teachers Alliance of Ghana, to demonstrate against the ‘One Teacher One Laptop’ policy introduced by the government on Wednesday, December 15, in Accra.
The group had earlier indicated it has come to their attention that despite court action it instituted, teachers’ money had been deducted without recourse to court proceedings for the ‘One Teacher One Laptop’ initiative.
According to the Alliance, this came as a shock since the original hearing of the interlocutory injunction filed on the 10th of November, 2021 on the stay of distribution and deduction had been rescheduled for hearing.
ATAG disclosed that many teachers are not happy about the development and have raised genuine concerns about the manner in which GES has authorized the deduction of the laptops fee from their November professional development allowance.
