Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum has announced that the government will begin distributing smart tablets to senior high school students in the coming weeks. The distribution will start at the Opoku Ware School in the Ashanti Region.
President Akufo-Addo recently launched the Smart School Project, which will see the distribution of 1.3 million smart tablets to students across the country. This initiative aims to equip students under the Free SHS policy with technology that will enhance teaching and learning.
During a visit to Opoku Ware School, Dr. Adutwum announced that the tablets would be distributed at the school in the coming weeks. He assured that measures are in place to ensure the initiative is effectively implemented.
“Within the next two weeks, we will improve internet connectivity at your school. We are also looking at solar panels on your classroom buildings so that connectivity will not be interrupted because you don’t have electricity. The smart box will be in at least 10 classrooms; that will be phase 1. Eventually, when you become a smart school fully, the smart box will be in all classrooms.
“We will begin with phase 1; not everything may be online, but with time, your homework, all class activities, lessons, everything will be online. You will be able to take assessments, and with the help of AI, you will get the results instantly. I want you to use the device in a way that will be productive.”
Some students of Opoku Ware School have already developed applications that can boost learning with the distribution of smart tablets. Reverend Stephen Owusu Sekyere, Headteacher of Opoku Ware School and President of the Conference of Assisted Secondary Schools, called for policy guidelines to aid the project’s implementation.
“Even though we’re afraid of what this tablet could bring to the school, especially some of the negative sides of it, like attracting thieves and students stealing from each other, and the kind of trouble they are going to give us when we give the tablets to them. With education and proper monitoring, we will be able to give them to use. We want them to expedite the policy guidelines so that the students can use them on a pilot basis.”
The Minister also visited the Presbyterian Girls’ School, urging students not to let their current environment affect their future aspirations. He announced the introduction of a science program at the school and the construction of a fence to improve student security. The Minister emphasized that the government would roll out more technological initiatives to boost Ghana’s education sector.
