Free Wi-fi to be installed in ‘public’ JHSs – Digitalisation Minister

The government is considering the installation of free Wi-fi in all Junior High Schools across the country to enhance ICT, research and knowledge acquisition, Minister of Communications and Digitalisation, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has said.

In a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek, the Digitalisation Minister and Ablekuma West Member of Parliament said the installation of free wifi in all Junior High Schools is a replica of the over 90% installed in Senior High Schools (SHSs).

​​​Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, however, noted that it has become difficult for the central government to replicate the installation of free Wi-Fi in Junior High Schools as the Education Ministry seeks to introduce blended learning.

“The challenge now is how to replicate that in the Junior High Schools (JHSs) as the Ministry of Education (MoE) seeks to introduce blended learning (a mixture of virtual learning and face-to-face),” the Communications Minister said.

The Minister for Digitalisation indicated that for the project to be rolled out in various public Junior High Schools, the Akufo-Addo government needs to put in place the infrastructure to support that launch at the basic school level.

In a related development, Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) has petitioned the Auditor-General to audit the free Wi-fi programme in Senior High/Technical Schools and Colleges of Education for proper accountability.

The request for an audit comes after EduWatch’s survey on the free Wi-fi programme disclosed the Wi-fi system of about 78 per cent of the public 138 Senior High Schools (SHS) that responded to the survey malfunctions.

“A performance audit must be commissioned by the Auditor-General into the free Wi-Fi programme to ascertain its full-scale efficiency and advise accordingly,” the Education Policy Research Organization stated in its request.

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In a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek, the Director of the Watch said ”the 5-year contract was valued at about GH¢462 million i.e. GH¢84 million for installation; GH¢6.3 million monthly internet subscription fee for 5 years.”

Source: Academicweek.com