He announced this at the commencement of the 2023 New Year School at the University of Ghana, Legon.
“This year, we will certainly provide all Senior High School students in Ghana with tablets loaded with textbooks to study,” said Dr. Bawumia.
“This is a very game-changing development. We will have past questions preloaded on this tablet that will be distributed,” he said.
To further expand the digitalization agenda, some schools across the country will by 2020 receive government-sponsored free Wifi connections, he said.
Peter Nortsu Kotoe who is a member of Parliament’s Education Committee is skeptical about the government’s plan to distribute free electronic tablets to all SHS students.
He admitted that although there is a need for technology to develop education in the country, the time to do it is a wrong priority, especially with the distribution of electronic tablets.
“There is a need to develop our education with technology, but we have to take it one step at a time. The Vice President has a good idea, but the timing is wrong,” he said.
He wondered where the government would get the funds to implement the free electronics policy since the provision for the initiative was not taken in the 2023 budget.
“There is no provision in the 2023 budget for the procurement of tablets for secondary schools and I know they will push one to the GETFund but the GETFund is too much to meet all the necessary requests because the GETFund only received 39 percent of the approved allocation in 2022, and it will it’s worse this year,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Institute of Education Studies (IFEST), Dr. Peter Partey-Anti, praised Dr. Bawumia because of the policy of providing tablets to SHS students.
He said that most private first class schools have this policy and it is clear from many homes that most children now log on to their parents and guardians’ smartphones to study.