The government should consider educational reforms that go beyond infrastructure, the President of the Lake Site University College, Ghana, Dr Mohammed-Sani Abdulai, has said.
He added that such reforms required long-term thinking and systematic transformations
Dr Abdulai was of the view that reforms must include online platforms, artificial intelligence, virtual reality and cloud computing, an integral component of educational system.
He made this statement at the 7th Annual Baraka Policy Institute (BPI) public lecture held in Accra.
The BPI lecture started in 2014 to purposely provoke reflections on critical areas that needed attention in national development effort.
The theme for this year’s lecture was “Navigating Effective Teaching and Learning in a Post-Pandemic Era.”
Dr Abdulai said the COVID-19 pandemic had revolutionised the use of digital technologies and mobile apps in higher educational institutions in Ghana.
“Digital technologies have proven to be essential tools for students to continue online learning and educational activities,” he said.
He further noted that schools were more than physical buildings that provided academic content and stimulated the mind, but provided regular access to food and health care, as well as providing critical socio-emotional support and the safety of adult supervision.
Critical for cases of poor professor-student ratio and under recourse universities, Dr Abdulai challenged universities to set up joint massive online courses (MOOCs) platforms to share resources, lectures, e-libraries, among others.
Delivering a lecture on the topic, “Education in the post pandemic era – the underprivileged learner in context,” MrAnis Haffar, an educationist and Director for GATE Institute, mentioned that “teachers need proper support in terms of training, capacity building, teaching materials and motivation to meet the digital era.”
He appealed to participants to engage in self- learning to acquire extra knowledge and not rely solely on what was being taught in the classroom.
“It’s high time we practice self-learning, using of technological tools which are at our disposal rather than sticking to the structural classroom setting in order to meet the digital era,” he added.
The Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in a speech read for him stated that the ministry would avail itself for dialogues between it and BPI and any recommendations made would be worked on to improve the educational sector of the country.
PHILOMINA OPPONG & ESTHER ATUBIGA
