Apaak Questions Gov’t On Source Of Funding For ‘One-student One-laptop’ Policy
Deputy ranking member of the Education Committee in Parliament, and the Member of Parliament for Builsa South Dr. Clement Apaak has questioned the government on the source of funding for the ‘One-student One-laptop’ policy.
Dr. Apaak making a judgment on his statements said the cost and maintenance of the laptops for about 1.3 million Senior High Students in Ghana will amount to a huge sum of money.
His question to the government follows a promise Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia made during his speech at the 60th Anniversary of the Hohoe Evangelical Presbyterian Church celebration on Saturday, May 27, 2023.
According to Dr. Bawumia, the government through the Ministry of Education is preparing to replace textbooks with laptops in Senior High Schools across the country.
“If this country must move forward in the right direction, we must invest in education which is the only platform for preparing nation builders for tomorrow”.
“The Minister for Education has also assured me that this year, we’ll start the replacement of textbooks with laptops in Senior high Schools,” he noted.
Commenting on the promise Dr. Apaak said the government should be able to tell Ghanaians the source of funding for the laptops.
“This has not come to the notice of the Committee so we are wondering where they will mobilize the resources from because we are talking about in excess of 1.3 million students in the secondary schools. So each student is going to have a laptop. I am sure you can anticipate the quantum of resources”, he noted in an interview monitored by The Ghana Report on Starr FM.
“We are not even talking about the maintenance, the durability, and the quality. So the issue is where will the funds come from, that is the big one”, he added.
Ghana’s economy after the COVID-19 pandemic has not been the same as the cost of goods and services continues to increase.
In 2022, the Cedi began performing poorly against the Dollar especially which steeped inflation.
Some Ghanaians also claim the Free Senior High School Policy is the major drain on the country’s revenue.
The incumbent government recently went to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a loan of US$3 billion to help stabilize the economy which was approved on Wednesday, May 17, 2023.
The central bank has received the first tranche of $600 million as part of the US$3 billion IMF deal.