Countries: Ghana
Ghana has made has made steady education progress over recent decades
- nearly doubling its adult literacy rates from 1970 to 2000. Yet, recent
statistics show that more than 25% of school-aged children are not now
in school, and less than 50% enroll in secondary school. In light of
these statistics, Ghana is moving forward with a variety of plans to
increase access to education for all sectors of society. Another dimension
of the concern for increased quality of education in Ghana is the relative
lack of ICT resources and access in the schools. Thus, a key element
in the BFI-Ghana project is to take advantage of ICTs to assist in all
dimensions of the project.
The Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI) in Ghana seeks to
improve the basic skills, literacy and entry vocational skills of out-of-school
youth and young adults in poor communities. More specifically, the BFI
will focus principally on assisting youth and primary school dropouts
who seek to re-enter the regular primary cycle of schooling, as well
as others who may never have attended school and those in alternative
schools or young adults in continuing and vocational education programs.
To achieve these goals, the BFI will employ the innovative and cost-effective
ICT tools and methodologies to improve the quality of teaching, learning
in basic and vocational education, and to assist community members in
obtaining information resources that can improve their daily lives.
BFI-Ghana is a collaborative effort of Kwame Nkrumah University of
Science and Technology (KNUST) – Ghana’s principal science
and technology academic institution, based in the Ashanti region’s
capital of Kumasi – the School of Engineering and Applied Science
and the International Literacy Institute (ILI), both at the University
of Pennsylvania, and the Community Services Foundation (CSF) – a non-governmental organization in Ghana.
A major thrust forward was recently achieved when Penn and KNUST received
a grant from Hewlett-Packard Corporation for equipment and services
totaling $1.12 million to lay the foundation for a high-speed ICT infrastructure
at KNUST and for community learning and technology centers (CLTCs).
HP’s support comes via the company’s "Digital Villages"
program, which aims to help communities in developing nations and the
U.S. harness technology in collaboration with schools, universities,
governments, community services, non-profit organizations and small
businesses. The award, to be administered jointly by Penn’s School
of Engineering and Applied Science and KNUST, will be used to develop
a computing infrastructure at KNUST and computer centers in eastern
Ghana. Hewlett-Packard will work with KNUST, Ghana Telecom, and CIS
(HP’s representative in Ghana) in the coming months to put in place
high-speed fiber optic lines and some of the CLTC’s.
"Ghana faces some serious socio-economic challenges. Using the
digital village we aim to help build a workforce that is skilled in
the critical areas of ICT," explained Thierry Boulanger, the regional
sales manager for English-speaking African countries at Hewlett-Packard,
at the moment of the H-P gift celebration. "This should help the
country attract greater international investment, create sustainable
vocational opportunities and bolster educational, agricultural, medical
and economic development across Ghana." Eventually, more than 50
CLTCs should exist nationwide. These centers will provide cost-effective
access to the Internet and equip Ghanaian students and others with higher
levels of ICT education and skills.
A key assumption of the BFI-Ghana approach is that the digital divide
is not purely one of access to hardware, but rather an education and
skills divide separating the rich and the poor. Thus, literacy and technological
literacy need to be simultaneously addressed with information and instructional
resources that can be delivered via ICTs in a culturally appropriate
manner (in a variety of appropriate languages) for a cost far lower,
and at higher quality, than has been possible heretofore. In order to
meet this broad target, the BFI will include three components of implementation:
(1) development of ICT-based software tools to improve basic education,
literacy, and entry level vocational education for teacher training;
(2) creation of community learning and technology centers (CLTCs) for
social and economic information resources (e.g. health, agriculture,
HIV/AIDS prevention, etc.) and lifelong learning; and (3) implementation
of advanced ICT-supported services to disadvantaged regions.
As of February 2002, a substantial portion of the ICT hardware and
connectivity has been achieved at KNUST. Progress over the remainder
of 2002 will focus on equipping up to half a dozen of the CLTCs with
hardware and connectivity, and to begin working on software solutions
for the effective use of ICT by under-served communities in Eastern
Ghana. This aspect of the effort will tie into ILI's strengths in terms
of local language software for low literate populations.
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See the following for more information about the project:
- Press release from Accra Mail of
December 3, 2001.
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