The General Secretary of the National Council of PTA, Gapson Kofi Raphael has expressed concern over the allocation of tablets to Senior High School (SHS) students under the Ghana Smart School Project initiative.
According to Raphael, while the initiative aims to enhance digital learning, there are more pressing needs among students that should take precedence.
One of the key concerns raised by Raphael is the prevalence of food insecurity in SHS institutions. He emphasized that addressing this issue should be a top priority for the government, as it directly impacts students’ well-being and ability to focus on their studies.
“For now, there are more pressing needs and resources needed in the educational sector,” Raphael asserted. “We must do what is necessary before we do what looks beautiful. It’s nice to share a tablet to students, but more importantly to address the root causes of the problems we face,” he mentioned to Nana Yaa Brefo and Isaac Ekow JB on Onua FM.
Highlighting the broader challenges within the education sector, Raphael underscored issues such as infrastructure limitations, overcrowded classrooms, and disruptions to the academic calendar. He stressed the importance of addressing these fundamental issues before pursuing initiatives like tablet distribution.
“There are issues about infrastructure challenges across, insufficient spaces that make it impossible for all students to be at school at the same time, there are issues about the Academic calendar about duration students need to stay in school and food insecurity.
“If you ask anyone, they will tell you we need those ones first, let’s fix the problem head-on, let us fix it from the base then we come to the top.”
Moreover, Raphael pointed out discrepancies between campaign promises and the implementation of the tablet distribution policy. He noted that while the initiative was initially intended to benefit students at all levels of education, the focus has primarily been on SHS students, leaving out those at the basic school level.
“When you look at how things are going, it seems the government’s focus is more on the SHS students, if you look at the policy and tablets being distributed to students in the SHS and you look at their claim that it is a fulfilment of a campaign promise if you look at the campaign policy documents of 2020 they mentioned that it’s for all students from the pre-tertiary level, and the pre-tertiary begins from the basic school. So where are tablets to be distributed to the students at the basic school level?” he quizzed.