The CEO of the Ghana Telecommunications Chamber, Ken Ashigbey, has described the ban by the Ghana Education Service (GES) on the use of mobile phones in Senior High Schools as wrong.
He has therefore called on the GES and other educational stakeholders to take a second look at the issue.
The GES banned the use of mobile phones in basic and secondary schools to enable students concentrate more on their studies. According to the Service, the uncontrolled use of mobile phones by students has a negative impact on their education since they waste valuable time on social media platforms.
However, to Mr. Ashigbey, the technological growth the world is experiencing now is enough reason for students to be allowed the freedom to explore. He said technology has become key to academic development.
Speaking at the 88th Speech and Prize Giving Day of St. Augustine’s College last Saturday, he said, “Students are confronted by a global village and opportunities that are available in Ghana can also be accessed by students in India, China and across the globe, so they too can take advantage of the opportunities available globally.
“We have to look at the Ghana Education Service’s policy that does not allow students in secondary schools to use mobile phones. We need to bear in mind that mobile technology and digitization is defining the now and the future. Like any tool, it can be used for good and evil. The difference between us and the societies making progress is how they harness the tools available to them for the benefit of their society.”
In a quick response to Mr. Ashigbey’s call, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cape Coast, His Grace, Most Rev Mathias Kobina Nketsia said though technology has become part of the world, students must be exposed to its usage with discipline and moral consciousness.
He said if students are not given the right guidance while they explore with their phones and other technological gadgets, its effect will have grave consequences on the country at large.
“Technology without character, ethical and moral formation is a very dangerous thing indeed. Technology must be guided and informed by spiritual, ethical and moral technologies, otherwise; we shall sink…Let us have technology but like I said, let the technology be informed by ethical, moral and spiritual information,” Most Rev. Mathias Nketsia said.
Source: Ghana/Starrfmonline.com/103.5FM/Kwaku Baah Acheamfour
