GNAT members stage a walkout in protest against Kingsley Nyarko’s government initiative of ‘one teacher, one laptop’

Members of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) staged a walkout on Deputy Education Minister Prof. Kingsley Nyarko to protest the government’s unfulfilled promise to provide laptops to teachers across the country.

GNAT members have expressed growing frustration and are calling on the government to urgently address their concerns. In 2021, the government deducted 30% from teachers’ salaries to fund the ‘one teacher, one laptop’ initiative. However, many teachers report that more than 50,000 of their colleagues have yet to receive their laptops, despite having paid for them.

During the opening of their week-long annual meeting, some teachers and members of the National Council of the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) disrupted Deputy Minister for Education Prof. Kingsley Nyarko’s speech, expressing their frustration with the government’s handling of the laptop distribution issue.

Teachers voiced their daily struggles in the classroom caused by the lack of laptops and the resulting disruptions to teaching and learning.

Afigya Kwabre District Chairman of GNAT, Sarfo Sarpong, spoke on behalf of the group to journalists, stating that

“Over two and half years now, some of our members haven’t received their laptops. Mainly some teachers at the kindergarten, education officers, and the Arabic teachers and some primary school teachers.”

He added that “National Labour Commission serving as a mediator gave government June ending to honour its part of the contract by supplying the outstanding. Today, July 22, there are still over 50,000 laptops left to be supplied.”