All teacher unions in Ghana have given the government up to Wednesday, December 22 to refund the deductions of GH¢509 from their Professional Deve
All teacher unions in Ghana have given the government up to Wednesday, December 22 to refund the deductions of GH¢509 from their Professional Development Allowance or they will mass up in protest.
Per the intended demonstration, teachers would mass up in their regional education and union offices across the country to express their displeasure against the deduction for what they termed as ‘sub-standard laptops’.
The government has deducted 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 will pay 70% of the cost of the laptop while the teachers pay the 30% themselves through deductions from Professional Development Allowance.
This has raised eyebrows as some teachers explained the deductions were not justifiable because they were not consulted.
The other concerns being raised by the teachers were that the lap tops were substandard while non-teaching staff have also been deducted.
This compelled one of the teacher unions, All Teachers Alliance of Ghana, to demonstrate against the move on Wednesday, December 15, in Accra.
Speaking on the way forward on 3FM’s Sunrise hosted by Helen Appiah Ampofo on Thursday, the General Secretary of All Teachers Alliance Ghana, Albert Dadson Amoah, explained that “it is the power of arrogance of the GES that has brought all these”.
“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.”
He added: “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.
“GNAT, NAGRAT and others joined our demonstration [Wednesday] and they have promised to join us again by Wednesday. We will be massing up again and it will be done at the regional educational office.”
Mr. Amoah said “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.”
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