Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication CEO, Dr Kenneth Ashigbey, has urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) and stakeholders to prioritize practicality in Information Communication and Technology (ICT) courses.
Dr Ashigbey emphasised that the current teaching and assessment methods for ICT, reliant on books, fail to effectively impart knowledge to children. He asserted the urgent need for a shift towards hands-on training in emerging technological advancements to empower the younger generation.
He said children could come up with workable solutions to problems in their communities by making use of technology to solve their everyday and community problems.
Dr Ashigbey made the call at a day’s training on coding under the ‘Coding Caravan for 200 pupils and 67 teachers from public basic schools in the Ningo-Prampram District.
The training is a digital skills education campaign initiated by the Ghana Chamber of Telecommunication in partnership with the Institute of ICT Professionals Ghana.
He indicated that when the curriculum at schools was geared towards being more practical, stakeholders and industry players would buy into the idea and partner with the educational system, to provide the needed logistics and equipment to train the pupils.
He said children were digital natives who always found their way out on how to use gadgets; therefore, giving them the basic training and access to ICT tools would make it easy to prepare them for the current world and the future.
Mr David Gowu, the Executive Director of the Institute of ICT Professional Ghana, reiterated the need to practicalize ICT training and examinations.
He said, “ICT for all levels must be practical based, with at least 50 percent theory and 50 percent practical.”
Mr Gowu said with the current global adoption and use of artificial intelligence to solve several human problems, children must receive more practical ICT training from the basic level to be able to explore and exploit the field just like their peers elsewhere.
In Ghana, even though some of the pupils passed their ICT examinations on paper, they had never seen a computer before, which meant they would encounter difficulties functioning well on the job market, as they would be expected to use the machines that they did not have any practical experience wit, he stated.
He said it was for this reason the Coding Caravan was initiated, to bring ICT practicality closer to the children by creating awareness and excitement among the kids to pursue ICT programmes.