Ghana at the weekend launched a national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) connectivity project, for Colleges of Education to ensure that teachers reappraise their methodologies to meet the learning needs of their students.
The Government ICT connectivity project covers 38 Colleges of Education
(formerly Teacher Training Institutions), 37 Public Technical Institutes, 510 Public Senior High Schools, and 23,000 Public Basic Schools with computing infrastructure.
The schools have been supplied with computers, printers, scanners, projectors and servers under a programme tagged: "ICT school connectivity project."
The project would significantly push forward the new, ICT policy of the government.
The National ICT School Connectivity Project was launched at a durbar of teachers, students, traditional rulers and a cross section of the public at Akatsi in the Volta Region by Mr Alexander Tettey-Enyo, Minister of Education.
He noted that the ICT School Connectivity Project was a demonstration of the commitment and resolve of the National Democratic Congress to improve the lot of the Ghanaian teacher not only in terms of financial benefits but also through the provision of educational facilities and logistics to enhance self-esteem and job satisfaction.
"The ICT Schools connectivity project ties in perfectly with the ministry's Ghana E-Schools and Communities Initiative, which is the umbrella
programme of all ICT in education intervention in all educational establishments.
"This is expected to enhance the successful take off of Distance Learning programmes in the electronic mode which in turn will open the
avenues for many to receive training and education beyond basic and secondary education," he said.
The Education Minister said the role of the teacher has changed in the sense that it is no longer sufficient for them to merely impart knowledge content.
"The teacher needs to encourage critical thinking skills, promote information literacy, and nurture collaborative working practices to prepare children for a new world in which no job is guaranteed for life, and where people would switch careers several times," he said.
Mr Tettey-Enyo commended the Ministry of Communication initiating the project through the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC).
Dr Gideon Quarcoo, Deputy Minister of Communications said the government has identified that "if the nation is to move her industrially weak and subsistence agricultural-based economy towards an information and knowledge economy, then Ghana needs to develop and implement comprehensive and integrated ICT for Accelerated Development policies, strategies and plans".
He said the government's ICT educational policy aims at reforming the educational system to provide the right types of skills and human resources required for developing and driving Ghana's information and knowledge based economy and society.
Dr Quarcoo said the policy would also help raise the quality of teaching and learning and make education more relevant to national goals and aspiration.
"In the light of this the government is ensuring that teachers acquire ICT skills to enhance subject delivery to pupils".
Mr Kofi Attor GIFEC Administrator said the fund seeks to provide financial resources for the establishment of universal service and ensure
access to ICT and basic telephony, by rural communities in Ghana.
"This includes facilitating and providing internet, multimedia, broadband service to unserved and underserved rural communities, and provide funds as subsidies for development of Telecommunications service throughout the country," he said.
He said GIFEC also "seeks to promote internet point-of-presence in the unserved and underswerved communities, offer basic ICT training to people in the unserved and underserved communities and facilitate the growth and development of ICT and internet in the target communities".
Mr Attor identified other areas of operation as ensuring capacity building and encouraging ICT inclusion, especially of women and the girl
child, provide ICT equipment and connectivity to selected educational, training, and vocational institutions and to develop an effective human
resource base for the organisation.