The Israeli Embassy has inaugurated three information and communication technology (ICT) laboratories in three senior high technical schools (SHTSs) to enhance the teaching and learning of ICT.

The classroom laboratories, which cost of $46,000, were undertaken under the Israeli Embassy’s ‘Education for digital innovation project’ which aims at supporting the government’s drive to project digitalisation and innovation in the economy and the education sector.

The beneficiary schools are the Amasaman Senior High Technical School, Tema Manhean Senior High Technical School and the Walewale Senior High Technical School.

Each laboratory was equipped with 20 laptops, with one laptop for the domain and instructor usage, one printer and two WIFI routers for internet access and one smart television for the students to follow the teacher’s instructions.

Opening of ICT laboratory

At a ceremony to inaugurate the ICT lab in Amasaman Senior High Technical School in Accra last Tuesday, the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, Ms Shlomit Sufa, explained that the project was aimed at enhancing ICT education among students by equipping their schools with updated information technology tools for their practical use.

“As an embassy, we hope to extend the project to more schools and to continue supporting education in Ghana through capacity building programmes,” she said.

She noted the project began in October 2021 when the first set of three senior high schools were selected with support from the Ministry of Education through the Vice-President’s Office.

“The identified schools included the Amasaman Senior High Technical School which had an ICT classroom but had no adequate tools for the students to use; the Tema Manhean Senior High Technical School, which also had a classroom with most of the computers being dysfunctional and the Walewale Senior High Technical School, which had no ICT classroom,” she noted.

She expressed the Israeli government’s commitment to continue to work with the government to improve ICT education in the country, adding that they were committed to ensuring that a lot more students benefited from the project.

She appealed to the students and teachers to take advantage of this opportunity and build their ICT skills for the next level of their academic and work life.

A Deputy Minister of Education, Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, promised to ensure that all stalled educational infrastructural projects in the school were completed.

“We are very much aware of the challenges of this school, every infrastructure project that money has been put into will be continued.

‘‘The projects funded by GETFund and projects started by the parent-teacher association (PTA), we will collaborate with them and have our engineers access them and see the best way to go,” he said.

He commended the Israeli Embassy for undertaking the projects, stating that the programme played a strategic role to support the government’s vision of empowering human capital and providing a conducive environment for the students.

Appreciation

The Headmistress of the school, Irene Ocansey, thanked the Embassy for the gesture and promised to ensure that the ICT laboratory was put to good use.

She said following the inauguration of the laboratory, she was confident that the school would introduce ICT as an elective subject next year.

She noted that the students, particularly the visual arts and technical students, in choosing their fourth elective subject often chose literature and economics because of the lack of a practical course such as ICT.