Bawumia's Provision Of Laptops To Teachers Not Serving Purposes Of Addressing Pressing Issues Affecting Education-Dr.Apaak
Dr Apaak explained that the capitation grant was introduced in Ghana in 2005 to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of primary education for all.
Freeman Koryekpor 
The Deputy Ranking Member on Parliament’s Education Committee, Dr. Clement Abass Apaak, has stated that the provisions of the laptops to the teachers in public schools in the country from KG to Senior High School (SHS) by the ruling News Patriotic Party (NPP) were not serving the purposes of addressing the critical and pressing issues currently affecting the teachers in the public schools in the country.
According to Dr. Apaak who doubles as the Builsa South Member of Parliament (MP) in the Upper East Region on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), he believes strongly that the money used by the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) government through the Vice President, Dr. Alhaji Bawumia Mahamadu to procure these laptops for the teachers should rather be channel through the payment of the capitation grants for schools and the school feeding caterers who are on strike.
He explained that the capitation grant was introduced in Ghana in 2005 to facilitate the achievement of the Millennium Development Goal of primary education for all.
Additionally, he stated that It is also to ensure that basic education is free for all–no payment of school or tuition fees
He stressed that these are some of the current most critical and pressing issues for which the government should focus attention on by way taking measures to address them so far the education is concerned in Ghana.
Dr. Apaak reiterated that it is important for the current government to ensure of addressing the issues of paying the school feeding caterers of their arrears and increase the amount paid per child from 97 pesewas to GH¢3.50.
It would be recalled caterers under the School Feeding Programme have vowed not to cook for the school children until monies owed them are paid.
The caterers insisted they will not be moved by empty promises this time.
The spokesman for the caterers, Kwaku Amedume, in a media interview said they have been taken for granted for far too long.
According to him, they have gone through all the necessary paperwork but they have still not been paid.
“That has always been the story we have been hearing for the past two years; we are organising some money, we are going to release some funding, we should bring our names, we should meet at 10 o’clock.
“We have gone through all these processes and promises, and we are still where we are for the past two years. So I don’t think it is enough to just conclude that we are satisfied. Until we have our money in our hands, we don’t trust that this money will be paid to us.”
The caterers declared a national strike on April 27, over government’s failure to pay them their arrears and increase the amount paid per child from 97 pesewas to GH¢3.50.
According to the National Organiser of the School Feeding Association, Mr Kwame Amankwaah, the caterers will only return to the kitchen after the government agrees to increase the amount per child.
Contributing to the issue in an interview on Angel Television, Dr Apaak accused accused the ruling NDC under the President Akufo-Addo of “destroying” the School Feeding Programme.
He noted that the government of President Akufo-Addo has destroyed the concepts and objectives for which the former President John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor has introduced the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP) to serve.
In 2005, the then New Patriotic Party government in collaboration with the Dutch government, started a school feeding programme known as the Ghana School Feeding Programme (GSFP).
But currently under the rule of Mr Akufo-Addo, the managers of the programme have been struggling to effectively sustain with it due to low budgetary allocation, poor nutritional content, and the non-payment of salaries of the caterers, among others.
Dr Apaak on Angel Television Breakfast Show, blamed the NPP for the current challenges bedeviling the programme.
He indicated that under the administration of the NDC, have been managing the programme well but they [NPP] have destroyed it.
He stated that the situation when the school feeding caterers were on strike for the past four weeks has attested to the fact that the programme is not working under the NPP government.
He maintained that the careers were on the strike for four weeks without cooking for the beneficiary pupils which situation was affecting retention of the pupils.
Dr Apaak mentioned that looking for alternative measures to address these pressing issues in the country's educational sector are rather an immediate matters that the leadership of this current government to focus on to ensure that it pays the cateers to go back to work.
