OKYENHENE CALLS FOR MORE INVESTMENT IN ICT (SPREAD)

Story: Nana Konadu Agyeman, Koforidua

THE Okyenhene, Osagyefuo Amoatia Ofori Panin, has stressed the need for greater investment in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) at all levels of the country's educational system to enable students and pupils to be abreast of technological advancement.
That, according to him, would enhance the country's human resource base for accelerated development to keep pace with global trends.
The Okyenhene, who made the call at the Eastern Regional Heads of Schools Summit in Koforidua last Saturday, stated that "as a nation aspiring to become competitive in the global village, we cannot neglect the use of ICT at all levels of our educational system to raise the human resource base".
"As corporate owners of this land and its resources, including its human capital development, our ultimate desire should be a heavy investment in ICT in our educational institutions, from the basic to the tertiary levels, to enable our future leaders to become competitive in the global world," Osagyefuo Ofori Panin stated.
The summit, which was on the theme, "Transforming schools through e-learning", brought together about 120 participants, including officials of the Ghana Education Service, the Ministry of Education, Science and Sports, heads of schools and their staff, as well as prospective school owners.
It was organised by e-toys and more, dealers in children’s computers and accessories and other learning products.
According to the Okyenhene, when Ghana gained independence 50 years ago, its development was at par with developed countries such as Malaysia, South Korea and Singapore, which, he said, had relied on technology to achieve their enviable present socio-economic development.
He said while such countries were earnestly using technology to develop their human resource base and infrastructure, Ghana was plagued by frequent changes in government through military take-overs, a situation which, he said, led to the destruction and depreciation of its infrastructure and undermined its human resource development.
According to him, besides such an unfortunate situation, the country's leadership had persistently failed over the years to apply technology to lift the nation from the status of raw production of commodities to that of processing to improve the quality of the products on the export market.
The Okyenhene stated that inadequate use of ICT in our educational system over the years had contributed to the poor delivery of teaching and learning and that such a situation had also affected administrative management, transparency, research work and the delivery of effective and efficient services.
Osagyefuo Ofori Panin, therefore, stressed the need for a conscious effort to invest in ICT at all levels of the country's educational system, since ICT had become an indispensable tool for quality teaching and learning, as well as administrative management and research work.
He was of the view that the use of ICT in education, apart from reducing corruption and ensuring transparency, could also enable all Ghanaian children to access quality and affordable education, irrespective of the socio-economic status and geographical location of one's parents.
He commended e-toys and more and its partners for their commitment to making available various ICT tools to schools in the country over the years.
The Eastern Regional Chief Inspector of Schools, Mr Kwasi Omane Yamoah, said since basic education now lasted 11 years and ICT had become a compulsory subject, school proprietors, managers and educational consultants should seriously think of ways of improving teaching and learning in their institutions.
That, he said, could only be achieved by applying ICT to teaching and learning to raise the standard of education in the country.
In her welcoming address, the Executive Vice-President of e-toys and more, Mrs Theresa Sackey, said the summit was organised to provide a platform for stakeholders to gain access to important ICT tools which could be applied to enhance teaching and learning in their institutions, as well as leasing as a financing option for school projects.