As the government rolls out the Ghana Smart School Project to distribute 1.3 million tablets to public Senior High School and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students, teacher unions are highlighting the government’s failure to fulfill its promises under the 1 Teacher 1 Laptop project.
During an appearance on JoyNews’ PM Express, President of the Ghana National Association of Teachers, Rev. Isaac Owusu, explained that the ongoing strike by public school teachers, which started last Wednesday, is a result of over 100,000 teachers not receiving the laptops they were promised and have been deducted for since 2021.
Rev. Isaac Owusu responded to criticism of the strike by the CEO of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC), Ben Arthur, stating, “Engineer [Fair Wages CEO] has been attacking us at every opportunity since Wednesday when we declared the strike.”
“When it comes to the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, the unions have raised five solid issues, and each of the issues is very important and dear to the teacher we’re representing. Regarding the issue concerning the laptop, the contract says that within 12 calendar months; that is from January 2021 to December 2021, the supplier should have finished the distribution and we are in 2024. More than 100,000 teachers have not received the laptop, and what is the engineer talking about?” he fumed.
As of December 2021, the Ghana Education Service (GES) reported that approximately 80% of the 62,000 laptops allocated for teachers in Senior High Schools had been distributed in the first phase of the project.
President Akufo-Addo, speaking at the launch of the Ghana Smart Schools Project aimed at providing smart tablets for SHS students, stated that the Ministry of Education had already distributed 200,000 laptops to teachers in pre-tertiary institutions nationwide.
On March 20, the three major teacher unions – the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT), Ghana National Association of Graduate Teachers (NAGRAT), and the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-GH) – declared a strike due to unsatisfactory conditions of service. They cited the government’s failure to renew their collective agreement, which expired in 2023, among other concerns.
Despite efforts to engage the government in negotiations, the unions claimed that the government had not shown willingness to address their grievances, leading them to resort to industrial action.
The CEO of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission (FWSC) criticized the unions for declaring the strike without following due process and for not adhering to an order by the National Labour Commission to call off the strike. He also expressed disappointment that the unions did not attend a meeting called by the FWSC and the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations.
“There are procedures, there are provisions as to what must happen before you can really embark on a strike. You failed to notify the employer, Fair Wages was not in the know, and what was statutory of you to notify the National Labour Commission was also not done, and then all of a sudden we’re ambushed.”
The President of GNAT affirmed to host Evans Mensah that teachers would remain on strike until all their demands are met, regardless of any criticism directed at them. This statement came in response to remarks made by the CEO of the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission during the show regarding their ongoing strike.
“The collective agreement, before the 2020 one that we signed, we were having 2009 collective agreement and we used it from 2009 to the year 2020. I want Engineer [FWSC CEO] to understand that, yes, you’re under the Ministry of Employment and Labour Relations, but you’re not the employer of the teacher. The law says that if we want to embark on industrial action we should notify the employer. Engineer, are you the Director-General for GES? Evans, we wrote two separate letters on the 29th of February and in those letters, the NLC was duly notified.”
“The teachers of today are not the teachers of yesterday. The teachers of today are demanding results from leadership, and that’s what we are doing. We don’t have any ill motives and nobody is behind us,” he noted, in response to Mr Ben Arthur’s query to know what their true motivation for the strike is.
He mentioned that they have a meeting scheduled with the National Labour Commission on Tuesday, March 26, to address the same issues.