All the 65,186 teachers in public junior high schools (JHS) are to benefit from the supply of laptops under a special programme by the government to promote teaching and electronic learning (e-learning) in basic schools. The laptops will be equipped with special Internet modems which will allow the teachers to share ideas on subjects and teaching methods. The Minister of Education, Mr Lee Ocran, told the Daily Graphic in an interview in Accra Tuesday that the project, which would cost the government GH¢40 million, would begin this year. “The government wants to raise the standard of e-learning in basic schools by the supply of laptops to teachers,” he said. rlg Communications, a local computer and mobile phone assembling company, will be engaged to supply the laptops to the teachers at a cost of GH¢500 per piece. After the distribution of the laptops to teachers in JHS, the government has programmed to extend the supply of the laptops to 24,293 teachers in public senior high schools and 2,723 teachers in secondary/technical and vocational schools. In September 2011, the government launched a programme to distribute 60,000 laptops to basic schools under its computerisation project to improve the teaching of Information and Communications Technology (ICT). Expatiating on the project to distribute laptops to teachers, Mr Ocran said rlg would train the beneficiary teachers on the use of the computers, especially networking, with their colleagues. Besides, he said, rlg would go to the various schools to repair damaged computers as a way of encouraging the students to develop interest in ICT. Meanwhile, the government has already distributed 40,000 computers to JHSs and an additional 20,000 are expected to be donated soon to complete the first cycle of supplying computers to basic schools. The Minister of Education said the government thought it prudent to also supply laptops to teachers because they needed to be computer literate to be able to teach the students. He said another consideration was not to limit the laptops to only ICT teachers but all teachers as a way of facilitating teaching and learning across the board. Mr Ocran said the Arab Bank for Development, the African Development Bank (AfDB), as well as several funding institutions in the United Kingdom and Canada, had expressed interest in supporting the project. Consequently, he said, the government was mobilising some funds locally to complement what would be generated outside to start the project in the course of the year.