Member of Parliament for Builsa South constituency, Dr Clement Apaak, says the government is using the ‘1 student, 1 tablet’ policy to hoodwink Ghanaians into believing that they are fulfilling their manifesto promises.

According to him, the government has introduced this policy to create the impression to Ghanaians that they have fulfilled some of their promises, thereby indicating that they deserve another chance to lead the country.

He asserted that the NDC in principle is not opposed to the provision of tablets with educational content to enhance the learning experience.

Speaking in an interview with JoyNews, he stated; “In fact in our 2020 manifesto on Page 70 under education, we indicated that we will provide free tablets with educational content to teachers and students to enhance teaching and learning and we made that proposal on the back of the experiences from Covid and how in the wake of the pandemic, teaching and learning was grounded." 

He noted that the current government outlined in their 2020 Manifesto their intention to focus on ICT and distribute tablets to Junior High School and Secondary School students.

“The current government in its manifesto for 2020 on Page 57, under promises, promise number 1,2,3 to do with ICT, indicated to Ghanaians that discussions were ongoing towards the distribution of tablets to Junior High School and Secondary School Students, that was the manifesto promise," he said on Tuesday, March 26.

Dr. Clement emphasizes that Minority parliamentarians are revisiting the NPP's manifesto promise, questioning the timing of the policy rollout, and seeking clarity on the implementation policy document for what the president launched the project.

“First of all if we are to take the NPP Manifesto, which is very important because what the president did in the presence of the flagbearer of the NPP, Alhaji Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, is to seek to tell Ghanaians that the NPP has fulfilled the manifesto promise and therefore deserves another opportunity to continue to govern this country, which is not the truth."

He pointed out that the government should have disclosed to Ghanaians its provision to procure and pay for approximately 2.4 million tablets, rather than just 1.3 million, considering the documented student population in secondary schools of 1,331,219 and slightly over 1.4 million in Junior High Schools as presented by both the ministry and the Ghana Education Service.

“So if we are to hold Akufo-Addo and Bawumia and the NPP to strict proof, the number of tablets that should have been procured and distributed even before today should be in excess of 2 million.

“They have decided to forget about the other side of the promise which is to provide tablets to Junior High School and they are focusing on Senior High School students,” he said.