ICT and bridging the digital divide between the urban and rural youth

There is no doubt that young people are innovators when it comes to Information and Communication Technology (I.C.T). ‘’With us at the forefront of as users and providers, we have the ability to use traditional and new media to transform people and communities’’.

As computers and internet penetration is increasing at the household level, public access facilities such as internet cafes, community information centers and businesses still remained inadequate and a growing challenge in most rural areas in Ghana. Use of

Investing in I.C.Ts is a costly decision for any country, whether developed or developing. Like Ghana, a developing country. Investing in I.C.Ts presents the dilemma of spending scarce/valuable resources on it or consequently suffering from widening technological gap. However, I.C.Ts are powerful and essential tools for learning: understanding, interpreting and communicating about the real world OR they can be black holes into which we pour our money, intelligence and time, getting very little in return.

The World Summit on the Information Society (W.S.I.S) to which Ghana subscribes also calls for building an inclusive information society, including the promotion of I.C.Ts towards the achievement of internationally agreed development goals contained in the Millennium Declaration. The specific targets for the W.S.I.S Plan of Action to be achieved by 2015 include connecting a number of access points with I.C.Ts including villages, community access points, all levels of education, public libraries, health centres, hospitals as well as all local and central government departments. Additionally, the need to adapt the school curricula to meet the challenges of the Information Society has also been called for.

Over the past years, initiatives to introduce I.C.Ts into the Ghanaian education sector have spanned pre-tertiary (both public and private schools) and tertiary levels especially in urban areas. Efforts have largely been geared towards the deployment of I.C.Ts to these facilities via the provision of computers and the establishment of I.C.T laboratories. Access however is still below the standards. Comparatively, the concerns remain for tertiary level institutions.  Additionally, there have been several private sector initiatives to set up Community based I.C.T centers. These however have been largely confined to urban areas. Increasing access to I.C.T services in the country requires the provision of facilities especially for the un-served and deprived Ghanaian population.

In 2003, government developed the I.C.T for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) Policy. This national policy outlines the plans and strategies for the development of Ghana’s information society and seeks to provide a framework and plan as to how I.C.Ts can be used to facilitate amongst other objectives the national goal of “transforming Ghana into an information and knowledge-driven I.C.T literate nation”.

Among the key strategies in achieving this objective is to modernize Ghana’s educational system using I.C.Ts to improve and expand access to education, training and research resources and facilities, as well as to improve the quality of education and training and make the educational system responsive to the needs and requirements of today’s economy. As a way of operationalizing the policy, government created the Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) in January 2004, to facilitate the provision of I.C.T, Internet connectivity and infrastructure to underserved and un-served areas of the country.

Despite these efforts by governments in facilitating the process of integrating I.C.T in the educational system of the country, problems still exist most especially in the rural areas. There are inadequate trained personnel to handle the facilitation of the I.C.T subject, inadequate supply of I.C.T teaching and learning materials and lack of necessary Infrastructure. Other challenges include lack of power supply in the rural areas, internet connectivity in most schools to broaden access to information lack of administrative support, high cost of I.C.T services and the brain drain syndrome in the area of I.C.T professionals.

Few months ago, Solomon Joojo Cobinnah of Multi TV made a report of a teacher of a school in Nnagmaya Damankung, a village near Gushiegu in the Northern Region who is teaching pupils without himself knowing what I.C.T means. Also, the pupils themselves have never seen a computer before. This became national news and reported on most national televisions and radios especially when the teacher said the meaning of ICT is ‘Information Computer Technology’. The question still remains ‘what lessons have we learnt from this’?

The Ministry of Education should improve and enforce the integration of I.C.T into curriculum development teacher training, and for vocational and technical training. ICT should not simply be presented as a new subject but should be taught in a cross-curricular way and should be part of all curriculum subjects in all levels of the educational system across all rural and urban spheres of the economy.

There should be adequate trained personnel to handle the facilitation of the I.C.T courses, adequate and timely supply of I.C.T teaching and learning materials, conscious budgeting and provision of necessary Infrastructure. Government should also intensify the national electrification exercise to rural areas so that there can be reliable power supply for internet connectivity.

I.C.T should be seen as an enabler, as a tool to benefit the whole of society and not only the elite and the urban areas. Less privileged should be encouraged to use I.C.T tools to trade and to create wealth for the country, others must be proactively helped to use and benefit from I.C.T. Improving the quality of education is aided by intensive and extensive use of I.C.T.

Effectively used I.C.Ts promotes multiple avenues for professional development of both pre-service and in-service teachers, especially through distance education. It also facilitates improved teaching and learning processes, promote inclusive education by addressing inequalities in gender, language and disability.