Government to roll out free wifi for secondary schools
Senior high school students will be able to access free wifi services on campus starting in October
The Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, says the government’s Free Wifi initiative will be launched in October.
She made this announcement during celebrations to mark the 2020 Girls in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Day at Nkwanta in the Oti Region.
The minister said the government also plans to implement an enhanced rural telephony project to resolve the difficulty of poor network service in underdeveloped areas.
The Free Wifi initiative was first announced by Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia at a town hall meeting in August.
When launched, many secondary schools, universities and other tertiary institutions are expected to benefit.
Few girls in ICT
Speaking at the ICT Day festivities, Owusu-Ekuful lamented the dearth of girls in the ICT sector.
She observed that many girls are unable to participate and develop a career in the industry because they lack training.
The time has come to create space for women and girls also to make the most of their potential in the ICT sector, the minister said.
“[In] the same way it will be difficult to eradicate poverty if issues of female inclusion are not addressed,” she said.
Owusu-Ekuful argued that ICT has become such a fast-growing area of business that it will be impossible to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030 if the sector continues to leave girls and women behind.
Review ban on phones
Owusu-Ekuful’s comments come after the Ministry of Education directed the Ghana Education Service (GES) to review its ban on phones in schools.
Yaw Adutwum, the deputy minister of education, said certain policies must be reviewed “to allow for the use of technology”.
“GES [Ghana Education Service] has been asked to review their policies and they are going to have to review it [the ban on smart devices]. We are in the 21st century,” he told Citi FM in August.
“There is a way to go around the concerns of parents and teachers as to which website the students can go to or cannot go to.
“In the 21st century, you have to leverage technology to improve learning outcomes. It is something that has to happen and ought to happen,” Dr Adutwum said.
E A Alanore
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