President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on Monday, March 25 launched what has been christened the ‘One student, one tablet’ policy.
According to the president, the policy which seeks to distribute 1.3 million tablets to Students in Senior High School (SHS) and Technical and Vocational Training (TVET) institutions, is only a small aspect of a grand agenda – the Smart Schools Project.
“In furtherance of our digitalisation agenda in the education sector, government is proceeding with plans to distribute 1.3 million educational tablets to students in Senior High Schools”, he said.
Manifesto Check
Checks by Manifesto Check, a segment on TV3’s late-night current affairs and news analysis show, Ghana Tonight, show the policy has its roots in the 2016 and 2020 manifestos of the New Patriotic Party.
Having originally been promised in the 2016 manifesto to expand ICT facilities, the Akufo-Addo government had by 2020 while seeking a second term said “Discussions are ongoing for the distribution of tablets to all Junior High Schools (JHSs) and SHSs.”
What was however not clear upon coming to power for the second term in respect of the policy was the fine details of the policy as regards procurement, cost per unit and distribution plan. The Minority in Parliament in June 2023 had cause to raise this concern and demanded that the Minister for Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum appeared before the House to answer questions.
Not much has been heard about that until the Minister of Education in February 2024 announced the policy will be launched in March. He put the number of tablets to be distributed at ‘over 1.4 million’.
Conflicting figures
While the sector minister had been variously quoted as pegging the number of tablets to be distributed under the policy at 1.4 million units, the president at the launch of the policy puts the number at 1.3 million- 100 thousand units less than the minister quoted. As it stands, it is unclear what the exact figure is and exactly who is in error – the minister or his boss, the president.
Cost per unit
Neither the minister nor the president in any of their public engagements spoke about cost of the project or even the cost of per unit. However, going by the figure the Minority Leader cited on the floor of Parliament, based on which he asked that the Minister be invited to answer questions, and the number of tablets intended to be distributed, it gives a sense of the cost of each unit.
It is important to state that since the president is superior to the sector minister, coupled with the fact that the president is the latest to speak about the number of units and considering that he spoke at the launch of the event, priority is placed on his figures. In that regard, each tablet on average costs approximately GHC570 if the only money committed to the project is indeed GHC740 million and the number of units to be distributed remains 1.3 million.
Is this the first time government is distributing tablets/laptops?
Similar policies have in the past been implemented by the different governments and the results have always been nothing to write home about. From the President Kufuor administration through John Mahama’s administration to Akufo-Addo’s, there has always been a policy in that regard.
Below is a list of such policies:
What more do we know about the policy?
Manifesto Check has been doing some research about the tablets to be distributed and who the manufacturers are. Find the details in the video below: