Following the announcement by the Vice President that SHS students are going to get free laptops loaded with textbooks, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has released a new One-Student-One-Table Training Timetable for the 16 regions.
One would have expected more prudent and informed spending on education by a country that is bankrupt and just returning from an IMF bail-out, with several local bondholders unpaid principal and coupons.
One-Student-One-Table Training Timetable
The training will be provided by KA Technologies as follows.
12th June – Upper West, Upper East, Savannah, Northern, and North East Regions.
13th June – Western, Accra, Central, North West, Oti, and Volta. Eastern will be held on the 13th and 14th of June
14th June -Bono, Ahafo, Bono East whiles the same training will be held in Ashanti on the 14th and 15th of June 2023
Free SHS Students Laptop and the Position of Stakeholders
Although Education stakeholders including African Education Watch have called on the government to shelve the ill-informed new policy, the government seems unconcerned about calls.
Reacting to the VP’s announcement, a press release by the CSOs did state that the public SHSs have enough textbooks and so there was no need to procure an estimated 1.3 million laptops for SHS students.
“Plans to procure 1.3 million laptops for SHS students are ill-informed, and not backed by any feasibility study, nor informed by education objectives.” The press release indicated.
They further called on the government to prioritize education at the basic school level, which is still in labour.
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“There are adequate textbooks in SHS, which the government rightfully touts as an achievement. If so, why the rush to procure Laptops with e-textbooks to replace existing printed textbooks in SHS at a time basic schools are struggling to get adequate printed textbooks, four (4) years into the primary school curriculum…” The statement further added.
Below are the full recommendations and stand of Africa Education Watch on the Proposed Free Laptops for SHS students
a. Plans to procure 1.3 million laptops for SHS students are ill-informed, and not backed by any feasibility study, nor
informed by education objectives.
b. Plans to procure 1.3 million laptops for SHS students contradicts international best practices in the use of laptops in
schools.
c. Plans to procure 1.3 million laptops for SHS students do not represent efficient and prioritized use of public funds in the face of staggering evidence of textbook and desk deficits in basic schools.
d. Plans to spend over a billion cedis on laptops for e-textbooks for SHS students at a time there are adequate printed
textbooks in SHS, are inconsistent with the austerity period Ghana finds itself in, more so when brutal cuts have been inflicted on the basic education budget.
e. The Ministry of Education, Ghana Education Service and SHS cannot manage 1.3 million laptops based on past and present evidence of poor management of ICT facilities and items.
Source: EducationBlog