The Ministry of Education, The Chronicle understands, has started the distribution of tablets to the various Senior High Schools across the country, as promised. So far, over 70,000 tablets out of 450,000 procured under the Ghana Smart School Project has been distributed to 30 Senior High schools.
The distribution of the remaining 380,000 tablets from the current stock, which is being done through an automated system, is still ongoing, according to the sector minister, Dr. Osei Yaw Adutwum.
The automated system, Minister Adutwum noted, would ensure that only students captured in the database of Senior High School Secretariat are served.
Speaking to the media in Accra, Dr Adutwum revealed that each tablet has a serial number and this identifies the student using the gadget.
He mentioned the beneficiary schools as Opoku Ware School, Bosomtwe Girls, Ola SHS-Kenyasi, St. James SHS, Bosomtwe STEM Academy, Osei Adutwum SHS, Wesley Girls, Abomosu STEM, Mamfe Methodist, Achimota SHS, Applied Technology Institute, ATTC, Awaso STEM, Kpasemkpe SHS and OIC.
The rest are Aburi Girls SHS, Nyakrom Senior High Technical, St. Augustine College, Ghana Senior High Technical, Ahantaman Girls SHS, Tarkwa SHS, Accra Academy, Mawuli School, Afua Kobi Ampem Girls SHS, Worawora SHS, Damongo SHS, Nandom SHS, Bolga Girls Senior High School, Notre Dame Girls SHS and Koase Senior High Technical School.
The minister, who is spearheading the effective implementation of the Free Senior High School project, initiated by the Akufo-Addo government, further told the media that IT personnel who have a role to play on the distribution platform had been trained to ensure efficiency in the deployment of the tablets from the headquarters to the school level.
“There is also a tracking system, which is able to tell when the device is active, sites that students visit as well as its location in the event that it is stolen. To ensure prompt servicing of the tablets, the Ministry of Education, in collaboration with K A Technologies, has set up 274 support centres across the country, with at least three technicians at each centre”, he said.
Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum said equipping students with digital skills would not only enhance their academic prowess, but also accelerate the digitalisation of the economy for socio-economic development.
“The President has demonstrated his commitment to transform education in Ghana with the introduction of innovative policies since 2017,” the Minister pointed out.
He said the huge investments made in the education sector would go down as the biggest legacy of the President and called on all stakeholders to play their respective roles to take education in Ghana to the next level.
“We are making significant progress as a nation and the statistics and learning outcomes since 2017 attest to the fact that we are heading towards the right direction under the leadership of President Akufo-Addo,” he noted.
He said beyond the Smart School Project, the government is also building modern laboratories, while revamping existing ones, in line with the implementation of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education.
President Akufo-Addo, it would be recalled, launched the Ghana Smart School Project on March 25, this year, in line with his vision to promote e-learning and digitalisation of the education system.
The goal of the project is to supply 1.4 million tablets that comes with comprehensive management learning system, which allows learners to take up self-assessment, access WAEC past questions and also create blogs to interact with other students.
