Ghana adopts e-schools project

The Ghana Education Service (GES) has partnered with Intel to boost the practical understanding of science and math in schools across the country.

The study of mathematics and science is a dreadful academic exercise among a number of students because of the lack of physical and visual demonstrations, admitted Reverend Emmanuel Dadebo, coordinator of GES' E-Schools Initiative. GES has accepted the challenge to introduce a long-overdue change in the curriculum, he said.

Intel has donated a library of digital learning tools to GES. Junior and senior high-school students will be able to access the tools through www.skoool.com.gh.

While Ghana had already equipped most of its learning centers with the tools to access digital content, there was formerly no content appropriate for such a program, Dadebo said.

Digital content is abstract and unsuitable for Ghana's education system without the addition of locally generated content, he said. Therefore, a team of local educators and researchers will manage the content donated by Intel.

The GES is working with its research and data department, the Ghana Association of School Teachers, the Mathematics Association of Ghana, and select teachers and school personnel to align indigenous content with the approved syllabus. The syllabus will be subject to review every four years, and the GES is expected to update it regularly.

Project managers are running a training course to enable teachers to use the digital content in their classrooms.

Rural communities without Internet access will be provided with DVD copies of the content for use in math and science instruction.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.