Minister of Education Matthew Opoku Prempeh has articulated the need to imbibe digital skills into students if education is to see a boost among the youth across Africa.
According to him, the quest to improve on essential life skills is critical, and securing and preparing children is possible with the proper framework, especially in these times of Covid-19.
He made these comments during the Mastercard Foundation’s release of a new report, Secondary Education in Africa: Preparing Youth for the Future of Work on August 13.
Report findings indicate that changes in the nature of work are placing a premium on skills that help young people be adaptable, resilient, and creative problem solvers.
Secondary education that provides relevant skills to young workers will help improve productivity, particularly in the informal sector, and will play an important role in driving long-term economic growth and reducing poverty in Africa.
Mr Opoku Prempeh indicated that even though the push for a national digitization policy could have started much earlier in Ghana, there is still the need to boosting that aspect of the average Ghanaian student.
Commending the role of the new report as a yardstick to align curriculum reforms, he explained that the approach must be an all-inclusive method especially in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Even though we had started all the elementary elements, and all of a sudden it seemed as if we had not even planned for it. We cannot be part of the 21st century world without embedding digital literacy as part of our education and life,” the Education Minister explained.
He was of the view that the novel coronavirus had heightened the need to acquire new skills in the evolving age of technology which has greatly provided the opportunity to rethink the modalities of conventional teaching and learning structures.
This means the provision of infrastructure for the technologies to be deployed.
It also calls for the training and re-training of teachers in the changes in curriculum to reflect the skillset necessary for its execution in the classrooms.
“We have to let our teacher be comfortable with ICT so that they teach the kids and be comfortable. We have a situation right now where the kids are more comfortable with the ICT tools than the teacher,” he clarified.
These are some of the areas identified by the Education Minister’s office to be addressed in the bid to bridge the digital divide in the educational space.
Using the 2014 Ebola crisis as a backdrop, former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said those experiences provided by the institutional memory in those trying times shows Africa must uphold education as part of the Covid-19 recovery plan.
Meanwhile, President and CEO of the Mastercard Foundation, Reeta Roy while speaking at the Secondary Education in Africa Virtual Summit described strategic investments into secondary education as critical in the youth’s ability to surmount challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Co-founder of Butterfly Effect, Primerose Adjepong also called on stakeholders to expand the remits of secondary education beyond the permanent structures.
“You don’t need to be in a classroom to get educated. You could be a farmer’s kid and you could learn a lot of 21st century skills, technical skills on that farm.
She explained that “We need to have that reality in mind and how do we ensure that if the buck stops here, these students are leaving university ready to work and self actualize.”
The report supports policymakers, educators, philanthropists, and young people themselves to re-envision secondary education for the future and to consider actionable recommendations for getting there.
Access the full report, Secondary Education in Africa: Preparing Youth for the Future of Work here.
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Source: JoyOnline