The Minority Leader of Parliament, Dr Cassiel Ato Forson, has requested the Minister of Education to provide Parliament with details of the GHC740 million allocated for the provision of tablets to Senior High School (SHS) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) students.
According to the minority, it was important for a policy document to be brought before Parliament to enable MPs to know the processes involved and the coverage plan for the programme. He questioned whether the ministry of education is going to cover half of the country now, or will cover the entire country over a period of time.
“A special SHS TVET digitization innovation programme of GH¢740 million is what has been allocated here. My argument has to be for us to reinforce it while we ensure that government presents to us a policy on this matter for us to understand the procurement processes, the cost per unit and all of that-the report did not capture that. It is important for me to state that in the coming days, it is important for the Minister responsible for education to bring that policy before us in terms of distribution… Members expressed the need for government to present to this house a policy on government distribution of laptops to be used as a way to replace textbooks.”
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
Minority questions prioritization of education
Furthermore, Dr Forson iterated that government must put before the house its plan to replace textbooks with laptops in schools. He explained that the plan announced by the Vice President will cost the taxpayer a considerable amount of money, however, details about the plan is scanty.
“Mr. Speaker, this is particularly important because members will need to at least apprise ourselves with government’s drive as to the replacement with laptops. Most particularly, it is not every school that will have access to electricity. Mr. Speaker we were told that those laptops will cost approximately GH₵1.5 billion and now the formula is allocating GH₵740 million.”
Dr Cassiel Ato Forson
Prior to this, executive director of the Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, called on government to abandon the idea of procuring over a million laptops for senior high school students in the country, describing it as ill-informed.
He revealed that Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s announcement at the opening of the 2023 Annual New Year School and Conference at the University of Ghana, on government’s intention to distribute free tablets to all SHS students to facilitate access to e-textbooks, past questions, and other relevant learning content and his iteration on the subject four months after will not augur well for students.
Mr Asare explained that there is a modicum of research to establish the fact that, while laptops are useful learning resources that expose learners to an ICT culture and enable access to other relevant digital learning content, they cannot replace printed textbooks.
Additionally, he noted that the complementary role laptops play with textbooks is affirmed in international best practices in education. However, he indicated that years after going digital in high schools, the governments of many advanced countries continue to provide printed textbooks to facilitate learning.
It will be recalled that the Vice President in May 2023 announced that government through the Ministry of Education is preparing to replace textbooks with laptops in Senior High Schools across the country. Dr. Bawumia stated that the initiative would be implemented before the end of 2023.
Moreover, Dr Bawumia indicated that it is aimed at preparing students to fit into the global village.
Per government’s policy, these tablets will come fully loaded with all the recommended e-textbooks, the complete syllabus, past questions, and examiner reports, as well as other teaching aids. This programme aims to reduce the expenses associated with purchasing textbooks and to better equip students for the digital age.
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