AfriKids Ghana, a Child Rights NGO, in collaboration with Imagine Worldwide has launched a pilot Project on Digitisation in some selected schools in the Talensi District of the Upper East Region to improve learning outcomes in numeracy and literacy.
As part of the pilot project, 200 Information Communication Technology (ICT) tablets and their accessories had been deployed to four basic schools in the District namely, the Tongo Primary, Salvation Army Primary, Balungu Primary and Takano Primary.
The project in addition is expected to deploy another 200 tablets and their accessories to other three basic schools in same District.
Speaking at the launching ceremony at Tongo on Thursday, the Country Director of AfriKids Ghana ,Mr David Pwalua , stated that over the years AfriKids Ghana and the Ghana Education Service(GES) and other partners had contributed significantly to the improvement of education standards in the region, particularly in the area of gender parity which , he noted, had led to high enrolments in Schools.
However, he explained that with the outbreak of the COVID-19 such gains seemed to be eroding, particularly in deprived schools and cited a research conducted by UNICEF to buttress the fact.
He indicated that it was against this background that necessitated AfriKids Ghana to explore other proactive innovations by looking for partners, such as the Imagine Worldwide which deployed such positive models to address similar challenges in some parts of the globe.
The Country Director explained that the project which comes in two phases would be scaled up to AfriKids Ghana’s operational areas in the region, depending on the success story that would be chalked at the implementation process of the piloting.
The District Director of Education, Hajia Emelia Adisa Abdulai, who was overwhelmed with the project, mentioned that one of the major problemsconfronting theeffective teaching and learning was lack of ICT skills and the equipment.
She stated many of the schools in the deprived areas across the district and the rest of the 14 districts in theregion taught their pupils in abstract when it came to the teaching of ICT.
“The most unfortunate thing is that most of the pupils in deprived schools in this part of the world have never known the parts of Computer and yet they are expected to write same examination with their counterparts in the urban centres who have been exposed deeply to ICTeducation”, she stressed.
She expressed optimism that the implementation of the project would help address the challenges and reiterated the need for all stakeholders to help AfriKids Ghana and its partner, Imagine Worldwide, in the implementation stages to qualify the project to be scaled up in more schools in the District and other parts of the region.
FROM SAMUEL AKAPULE, TONGO
