He announced this at the commencement of the 2023 New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon.
“This year, we are on course to provide all senior high school students in Ghana with tablets loaded with textbooks for their studies,” said Dr. Bawumia declared.
“That is a very game-changing development. We will pre-load past questions on these tablets that will be distributed,” he said.
To further expand the digitization agenda, some schools across the country have received government-sponsored free WiFi connections in 2020, he said.
Peter Nortsu Koto, a member of Parliament’s Education Committee, has expressed skepticism over government plans to distribute free electronic tablets to all SHS students.
He admitted that while there is a need to technologically develop education in the country, the time to do so is wrong, especially with the distribution of electronic tablets.
There is a need to develop our education technologically, but we need to take one step at a time, the Vice President has a good idea, but the timing is wrong.
He wondered where the government would get funds to implement the free electronic policy as the provisions of the initiative were not captured in the 2023 budget.
“In the 2023 budget there is no provision for procurement of tablets for senior high schools and I know they are going to push it to the GETFund but the GETFund is very burdened because it cannot meet all the necessary demands because the GETFund has only received 39 percent of the approved allocation in 2022, and it will be worse this year,” he said. Said.
Meanwhile, Executive Director of Institute of Education Studies (IFEST) Dr. Peter Parti-Aanti, Dr. for the policy of providing tablets to SHS students. Bawumia praised him.
He said that most first class private schools already have this policy in place and it is evident from many households that most children are now logged into their parents’ and parents’ smartphones to learn.
