Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana gives in-depth explanation to the TM1 Laptop Initiative

EducationGhana, September 25, TM1 Laptop: The Deputy General Secretary of the Coalition of Concerned Teachers Ghana (CCT-GH) Patrick Nii Sackey has given an in-depth explanation to the Teachers Mate 1 (TM1) Laptop being distributed to Teachers.

Patrick Sackey made this revelation in a panel discussion with Ellis Ferdinand on Summer 106.9 FM in Accra on Saturday, September 11, 2021.

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Specifications

Speaking on the specifications, Patrick said the laptop comes with an Intel Chip, which is the Intel Celeron Chip. He added that the chip is the most current on the market.

He further indicated. that the Intel Celeron 4020 Chip that comes with the PM1 Laptop is comparable to i3 seventh generation.

The Chip according to Patrick, was announced in late 2019 according to intel and was released in 2020, making it a modern and current chip.

 Storage

Patrick indicated, that the Laptop has modern storage, which is the Solid State Drive (SSD) and not the old or Normal Mechanical Hard Disc Drive (HHD) storage.

He indicated, that the SSD is 128GB .

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Unions Awareness

Patrick Nii Sackey confirmed, that the Unions together with the government worked on the Specifications of the TM1 Laptop.

He added, that the Unions were aware of the kind of Laptop that was to be distributed to the teachers.

Screen Size

Responding to questions pertaining to the size of the screen, Patrick indicated, that the proposal being submitted by the three teacher unions, that is GNAT, NAGRAT and the CCT-GH agreed on 14-inch screen size.

Meanwhile. the founder of the Innovative Teachers Union. Stephen Desu said the initial Laptop being displaced by the Teacher Unions was a 15 to 17 size laptop.

Cost of Laptop

Moreover, Patrick argued that with the higher quality specifications of the TM1 Laptop, no teacher can get the TM1 laptop on the market at GH¢1800.00

He argued that any teacher who says he or she can get the brand of the laptop at GH¢1800.00 on the market should acknowledge the unions with the source for verification,

He admonished the general public to resist following a photoshop laptop being circulated on social; media to contradict the TM1 laptop.

Photoshop 2021

Patrick added, though the TM1 Laptop was not designed for graphic designers, it’s able to take Photoshop 2021 version and work with it successfully during their trials of the usage of the laptop.

MS Office 2019

”One of The packages of the TM1 Laptop is the Microsoft Office 2019 Professional Keys in the box.” He said.

He further indicated that the MS Office Professional Keys is being sold for $200 to $400 on the market depending on the vendor.

He said the key shall be used for only one Laptop at a time.

Training and Certification

Sackey indicated, that as part of the package, Microsoft shall train every teacher in Microsoft Office Suite and every teacher shall be issued a Microsoft Office Suit Certification after the training.

He indicated, that the training shall include MS Word, Powerpoint, Spreadsheet etc.

He said the training of persons by private agencies for MS Office certification is very expensive but shall be made free as part of the package for the purchase of the theTM1 Laptop.

He further indicated that Microsoft has begun the training of Master Trainers who shall be used for the training of all teachers across the country.

NTC Professional Credit Point

Patrick said that Certificates to be issued by Microsoft can be used by teachers for their National Teaching Council Professional Credit Points for renewal of their licenses.

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