Executive Director of Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), Kofi Asare, is requesting a performance audit of the government’s free Wi-Fi usage in Senior High Schools.
He emphasizes the need for the Auditor-General to conduct a thorough examination of the Wi-Fi usage, highlighting that many students in different schools are unable to access the facility for their studies.
In an interview with the media, Mr. Asare revealed that some schools have been without free Wi-Fi for six months, while others have been unable to access it for a year.
“Some of the schools we sampled, there was no Wi-Fi. In order to get value for money for the GH¢6.3 million paid to Busy Internet, it’s incumbent on the Ministry of Education to ensure that before government pays money every month for the provision of Wi-Fi services, we must have a mechanism to ascertain that all the institutions under the contract are receiving internet, and to ensure that the schools receive the right internet specifications as contracted.”
“Where you have about 75% of Senior High Schools not getting internet, it means that there’s a high risk of low efficiency and low value for money. That is why we have requested the Auditor-General to conduct a broad performance audit into the entire programme serving about 1000 educational institutions. Some of the schools have been off the internet for the past year,” he stated.
According to Eduwatch’s latest report, the free Wi-Fi program has been found to be malfunctioning in approximately 75% of the sampled senior high schools.
Busy Internet Ghana Limited was responsible for installing Wi-Fi equipment and providing internet facilities to 717 senior high schools, 16 Regional Education Offices, 46 Colleges of Education (CoEs), and 260 District Education Offices.