ICT To Drive Ghana�s Educational System

Professor Jane Naana Opoku-Agyeman, Minister of Education on Monday lauded Ghana�s educational system as one of the best in the world. According to her, the system has produced many great scholars over the decades who have, and continue to compete favourably with others around the world. She, however, admitted that in spite of the successes achieved over the years, there was the need to reflect on current changes brought about by the digital age, and be abreast with the times for sustainable national economic and human development. This, she said, could be achieved through an Information and Communication Technology-driven educational system which must focus on proper development of the required instructors and infrastructure for successful e-learning eduction. Prof. Opoku-Agyeman was addressing participants at the 65th Annual New Year School and Conference which opened on Monday in Accra. The week-long school and conference which is an annual national event held by the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE) of the University of Ghana (UG), is on the theme: �Information and Communication Technology-Driven Education for Sustainable Human Development: Challenges and Prospects�. Prof. Opoku-Agyeman admitted that Ghana needed to embrace itself with the reality of changes brought about by the digital age, where knowledge sharing through distance learning has become a motivating factor for enhanced education. She said, over the years, government had implemented various policies and programmes including the improvement of teacher training, infrastructure, review of educational curricula especially for polytechnics to become more relevant, expanding access beyond basic level enrolments by improving infrastructure at both secondary and tertiary levels, yet the returns have not been encouraging.. Prof. Opoku-Agyeman, however, indicated that with the present focus on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to drive education, there was the need to empower institutions of higher learning to come out with sustainable solutions to offset the challenges of ICT usage. These institutions must also be adequately resourced both financially and technically to be able to develop suitable software for usage by both lower and upper levels of education, to ensure that they become practical initiators of their own ICT needs, and not consumers of foreign products alone. Professor Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, a Former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Education, who delivered the keynote address, said Ghana�s statistics of only 4.1 per cent of the population to post secondary access of higher of education was alarming, and needed urgent redress. He, however, indicated that this huge gap cannot be bridged through the usual conventional means to improving access, which he said, would delay the entire process of attaining an information society. He urged the participants that discussing the benefits of ICT as an enabler for educational advancement, it must also be recognised that there are huge challenges to be confronted head-on in the country�s educational sector. Some of the challenges include issues of poor quality, geographical inequalities, inadequate infrastructure, lack of qualified teachers and the limited access, for tertiary education in particular. Prof. Anamuah-Mensah advocated for massive investment in ICT to improve e-learning education, ensure improved management of existing institutions of distance education, develop policies for the improvement of human resources, infrastructure and funding for research.