Govt, Stakeholder Collaborate In e-School Initiative

The government would open up to stakeholders in the private sector for collaboration, towards the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) e-School Initiative in West Africa, the Minister for Education, Mr Lee Ocran has stated.

He said this would accelerate the infusion of technology into the education sector to enhance the country’s chances of attaining the Millennium Development Goal in (MDG) 2015.

In a speech read on his behalf at a two –day regional conference of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on facilitating private sector investment in the NEPAD e-School Initiative in West Africa in Accra, Mr Ocran underscored the need for the private sector to contribute fully towards its implementation.

NEPAD e-School is a multi-country, multi-stakeholder, continental initiative to teach young Africans in primary and second-cycle schools in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills to improve the provision of education in schools through ICT applications and the use of the Internet.

The first phase of the initiative was a demonstration project, which had six schools participating in 16 African countries to establish a body of knowledge, based on real life experiences to introduce ICT in schools throughout the continent.

The two-day conference was attended by representatives from Internet service providers, financial institutions, government departments, ECOWAS, Chamber of Commerce and the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT).

Mr Ocran explained that although the traditional method of “wall and chalk “ was still valid, it was no longer exciting adding that “traditional methods of education and training could not address the scope and scale of the task”.

He said the government in a bid to improve the quality of teaching and learning had made available more than 60,000 laptops to be distributed to the junior secondary schools to promote e-learning.

The minister, however, commended the universities for the height it had reached in the distance learning and having paved the way for technology improvement.

A former acting Director of Distance Learning at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Mrs Vivian Attah, said the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for the e-School initiative would be the connection to African schools.

The workshop empowered key stakeholders in terms of knowledge, capacities and analysis in undertaking business environment reforms and creates more favourable conditions for ICTs in the education sector in West Africa.

The Chief Executive Officer of Federation of West Africa Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Cherno Jallow said the conference would lead to the preparation of a road map for the implementation of a concrete action plan for the rollout of the accepted PPP model in Ghana and throughout the ECOWAS region with the involvement of the private sector.

Source: Daily Graphic