Teachers Petition CHRAJ Over Sub-standard, Overpriced ‘Free’ Teachers Laptop

The laptops that the government is providing to Teachers under its one teacher, one laptop ‘(1T1L)’ programme are substandard and heavily overpriced, charges a teachers group.

The government of Ghana is spending at least GHC 500 million to buy the laptops from local company K.A Technologies.

A teacher group calling itself Innovative Teachers Association (ITA) has petitioned the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) to probe the possible heavy price padding.

The government is supplying the 4GB RAM 13 laptops at a cost of almost Ghc1,800 per computer, however, the ITA says the “cost of these laptops is purported to be Ghc1,550 and we suspect this amount is inflated.”

“The highest price for this TM1 laptops must not be more than Ghc600.00 giving the specifications of this laptop,” the group said in a statement.

The Association, had in March, petitioned CHRAJ over the laptops and they say they are surprised as to why CHRAJ has not already initiated the probe. 

President of the group, Stephen Desu, also worries about what he says is the cheapness of the quality of the laptops.

“We suspect that it is not a final product that has been brought to Ghana. If it was them, do you think they will import such substandard laptops for them, they will be using apple.…this year, they’ve been given $28 million to procure cars, are they going to procure the cars from whichever county the same way they have done for us?” he inquired while speaking on Joy FM midday news.

According to him, popular brands such as Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo have well-known track records and therefore have parts available.

He lamented that officials of the Education Ministry could not even tell them what brand the laptops are made of.

“Which company imported these things here, which company manufactured these laptops, do they have a track record of manufacturing laptops”, he quizzed angrily.

Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia launched 1T1L amidst fanfare at the St. Mary’s Girls Senior High School in Accra.

Per the program, a total of 280,000 laptops have been procured and being distributed to the government sector teachers to enhance their work.

Teachers are to bear 30% of the cost while government bears 70%.