Efforts to augment ICT facilities in SHSs (1/5/09

PLANS are underway for the Ministry of Education to acquire additional facilities on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to augment the already existing ones in all senior high schools in the country.
The ministry has also put in place strategies for creating an enabling environment towards capacity building of teachers to equip them with the needed relevant knowledge and skills.
This is expected to lead to the efficient management and delivery of quality education in the country.
The Minister of Education, Mr Alex Tettey-Enyo said this at the presentation of Omatek products to beneficiaries under the e-Xpress Scheme in Accra.
Ten people, including teachers benefited from the e-Xpress scheme.They were presented with Omatek computers.
Mr Tettey-Enyo, who lauded the initiative of the company, said it would go a long way to support government's efforts at bridging the digital divide and making ICT an enabler of growth and accelerated development.
"In our efforts to keep pace with the fast growing application of ICT in education, the ministry has put strategies in place aimed at ensuring that Ghana is not left behind," he noted.
He observed that only a few teachers had the opportunity of being trained in ICT during their professional education and said the intervention by Omatek had created a challenge to the ministry in the development of ICT in the educational system.
Mr Tettey-Enyo stated that, "it is important for the products of our educational system today to fit into the job market of tomorrow".
He said his ministry was committed to ensuring that the right environment was created in schools to provide the job market with people who had the skills to productively transform knowledge and information into innovative products and services.
The minister indicated his ministry's commitment to ensure that students had the skills necessary to collaborate, work in teams and share information across global networks to analyse issues from a multidisciplinary perspective.
He assured Omatek and other ICT companies of government's commitment to create an enabling environment for making computers available to all and also assist in making the scheme a success.
The Group Managing Director of Omatek, Mrs Florence Seriki, said the e-Xpress Scheme was designed to make ownership of computers and other ICT related products available to civil servants and other public workers who would pay over a period of time.
"Omatek in a bid to buttress government’s efforts in making computers available to every Ghanaian, initiated the e-Xpress Scheme under the Government Assisted PC Programme," she noted.
A representative of the Minister for Communication, Mrs Alice Atipoe, said the Ministry of Communication had launched the Government Assisted PC Programme (GAPP) to promote accessibility to PCs and the Internet.
She said the programme would enhance the activities of locally assembled companies to generate employment and provide affordable but quality PCs for the Ghanaian market.
She lauded the initiative by Omatek, saying that it would increase home ownership and access to PCs at affordable rates in the country.
Mrs Atipoe encouraged Ghanaians to patronise the scheme, adding that "It seeks to compliment Internet access, connectivity and enrich local content development".