The Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia on Wednesday performed a brief ceremony in Kumasi to officially kickstart the distribution of the government’s Tablet Computers to students of senior high schools in the in the region.
Students in public senior high schools are to be given a Tablet each for free under the government’s One Student One Tablet Programme being implemented by the Ministry of Education to accelerate ICT-aided teaching and learning.
Some 1.2 million students are to benefit from the initiative which was launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo earlier this year in Accra.
On 25th March this year, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the Ghana Smart schools Project in Accra and said existing facilities in public senior high schools are to be transformed into Smart schools and new structures built in schools where necessary.
Under the Project, students in high schools are to be given free Computer Tablets to facilitate learning.
Teachers and staff of the Ghana Education Service are also to benefit from free Laptops to facilitate research, teaching and learning under a separate arrangement.
Both the Laptops and the Tablets have downloaded learning materials including textbooks.
The Vice President also inaugurated a dedicated school block named after the current President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo at Opoku Ware School.
The Nana Akufo-Addo Smart Block has classrooms fitted with digital devices, including Smart Boards, Computers and Internet to facilitate usage.
According to the Ministry of Education, the Opoku Ware School therefore becomes the first Smart School under the Ghana Smart Schools Project.
Addressing the ceremony, the Vice President said government is leaving nothing to chance to ensure a digitally modernized environment for teaching and learning senior high schools across the country.
He explains recent strategic interventions to digitally reform the school environment in senior high schools is to ensure that products of the country’s education system fully embrace and be part of the fourth industrial revolution.
The Vice President Bawumia, also the Presidential Candidate for the New Patriotic Party in the December general elections described the occasion as historic.
“Ghana is among few countries in the world where government has supplied students with Tablet computers and this is to ensure the future does not elude our children”.
The Minister for Education and Member of Parliament for Bosomtwi, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum told the brief ceremony at Opoku Ware School campus in Kumasi “Ghana cannot be left out of the digital age”.
“Ghanaian students must face the 4th industrial revolution with a sense of pride and a mindset for growth”, he said to a cheering crowd of students
The Headmaster of the school who is also the National President of the Conference of the Heads of Assisted Schools (CHASS), Rev. Fr. Steven Owusu Sekyere pledged a good use for the facilities.
He also said measures have been put in place to check abuse.
The Bishop of the Archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Kumasi, Bishop Gabriel Yaw Anokye commended government for efforts at transforming educational institutions.
The Vice President presented Tablets to some students with all senior high schools in the region expected to distribute the Tablets to students at no cost.
A total of some 1.2 million children in public senior high schools across the country are to benefit from the free gadgets.
The Vice President was accompanied by some members of Parliament, senior party officials and education managers.
The Tablets distribution begun in March and many schools have already distributed the Tablets to their students under the different phases of the project’s distribution plan.
The Ghana Smart Schools Project is intended to strengthen and enhance quality, delivery and outcomes in the Free Senior High Schools Programme otherwise known as Free SHS.
Earlier this week, government indicated it plans to introduce a law, Free SHS Act in Parliament to back the programme.
