The power and advantages of education cannot be underestimated. Through education people get employed, become responsible, gain experience, are empowered, make better friends, learn a lot, manage time properly, become disciplined, acquire better social and organisational skills, and have deeper perspectives.
Above all, education reduces inequality.
Unfortunately, there are many places in the world where access to even the most basic education is severely limited even in the face of increasing access to technology. This is a sad fact, because education is the best tool for social change, economic development and prosperity in a country.
Being able to gain quality education puts a person on the same level as many others irrespective of social
and economic upbringing, thereby reducing inequality at, both economic and social levels in society.
Also, globalisation and international trade require countries and their economies to compete with each other. Economically successful countries will hold competitive and comparative advantages over other economies.
The education and training of a country's workers is a major factor in determining just how well the country's economy will do. The study of the economics of training and education involves an analysis of the economy as a whole, of employers and of workers.
Two major concepts that influence the wage rate in an economy are training and education. In general, well-trained workers tend to be more productive and earn more money than workers with poorer training.
Using these factors as a benchmark, Ghana, in its current state cannot compete favourably on the global stage.
Even though the country has been a regional leader in the delivery of Education for All, attaining the Millennium Development Goals on education well ahead of the 2015 deadline (as of 2011, Ghana had an 84 percent Net Enrolment Rate in basic school and had reached gender parity in classrooms), nearly 623,500 children of primary school age are still not enrolled in primary school; and one out of four children in the kindergarten age range (from four to five years) are not in pre-school.
Girls from northern Ghana average only four years of education, three years less than the national average; and 20 percent of children with physical disabilities are not attending school, according to the 2010 national census. The proportion of the population that has never attended school in the rural area (33.1 percent) is more than two times that of the urban area (14.2 percent).
Many students in Ghana also do not benefit from quality education. Often, the school environment is not conducive to learning: classes are overcrowded, water and sanitation facilities are lacking, and trained teachers and schoolbooks are in short supply. The poor quality of education is reflected in students’ results.
The TAP2educate approach
But all hope cannot be lost as a new revolution, TAP, is about to revolutionise the educational system, especially public school education, which can be said to be in various stages of decline, especially in the rural areas.
TAP is a tablet device that seeks to deliver individualised and intuitive learning to students all over Africa, particularly those in public schools. The 7-inch MTK8312 Dual Core device runs on Android System 4.2, and has 3G dual-sim, DDR3 512MB, 4GB storage, 2800Mah battery, 1024x600 HD screen and front and rear cameras.
TAP, through its TAP2educate initiative, seeks to radically transform education in Africa. TAP intends to work with corporations with substantial interests in Africa to deliver its agenda through a well-managed Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.
The device has an application store called TAP Store, a localised version of Android’s Play Store, which has localised downloadable applications for students of all levels to learn from.
The TAP Store has several educational applications and e-books from different countries, especially in Africa. It is very crucial because so much local content gets lost in the millions of applications on Android’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store.
A platform like the TAP Store for schoolkids will help promote what is made in Ghana and Africa. Even though the focus is on education, it will become a concrete platform for local technology content providers to make a name and create jobs.
Led by a dynamic and deeply passionate young man, Kweku Quansah, TAP2educate is sure to not only increase the quality of education in the country but revolutionise the whole continent through technology.
Kweku hopes to attract grants and other financial support from CSR budgets of multinationals, local enterprises, small businesses and even individuals. To him, the platform, especially the TAP Store, is one that can help companies and individuals who are interested in getting their messages across in a more effective manner. He believes that supporting a project like this will help the donors be strategic in their approach to CSR.
“What tends to happen with large companies is there is always an intention to do CSR. But at the same time every company needs to do marketing, therefore CSR stands toe-to-toe with marketing. If you do CSR very well, you fulfil the objectives of marketing as well. What you find in Ghana is that there are companies with significant marketing budgets but no proven CSR track-record.
“In supporting this project companies will create the needed impact and serve a need, but at the same time promote their business objectives. We would not like to de-link CSR from marketing but instead think of CSR as a component of marketing for any company, even the smaller ones. Instead of placing so many advertisements in newspapers, online, on radio and TV about your products and services, you can get some more mileage when you do CSR strategically. That is why we think CSR is the cornerstone of this project -- and in this country CSR has tax incentives as well,†he points out.
Kweku says companies trying to establish their own app stores should instead support the TAP2educate initiative, because it has the potential to help them achieve their aims.
“You do not jump into a field you are not really conversant with. We want to encourage an investment culture. People should be able invest in app-building because it feeds back to you. A telecom company trying to develop an app store is good, but an app store developer working on apps is greater. So the giants like the telcos and banks should instead invest funds into app store makers like TAP who can also invest into e-books for the TAP Store.
“If an author has the potential to do an e-book a week, that is 52 books a year. But if they have to be chasing publishers, the process of even going to print could take a whole year. It is volatile because you don’t even know how much readership you will get; but as an e-book, if it is installed on all devices then you know where it is going and who is reading.â€Â
Based on his experience in higher education in the United States, Kweku Quansah -- an architect by training and Group Head of Alchem Global Group, an architectural company, wants to help in the development of his homeland, Ghana.
Mr. Quansah believes that looking at the current state of public education in the country, a project like TAP2educate can salvage the situation before it reaches total collapse.
Having undertaken extensive research and development into areas such as affordable housing, urban regeneration, health and education, he believes that with quality education a lot of transformation can take place in different sectors of the economy.
Another essential benchmark is improving comprehension, which cuts across different subjects. Students will be able to learn through an application to address issues that are generally vague to the average child.
At the JHS and SHS levels, drastically improving results of BECE and WASSCE students is a goal of this new device. Through unlimited mock-exams in the TAP Store, students can take exams and track their progress all the way till they take the actual test.
“At the end of the day we will do research to find out how this has affected their results after our pilot project. We hope to improve the pass-rate of students,†Mr. Quansah says.
With about 5.1million people enrolled in 21,800 public basic schools nationwide; 496 SHS public schools enrolling about 479,301; and about 260,000 teachers in these schools, there is a market for these devices.
Kweku and his team have an ambitious plan of rolling out 100,000 tablets by August 2016, with each device coming with a protective case, book-bag, pencil case, and T-shirt.
In the middle of September, a pilot project will commence at the Bawaleshie Basic and Junior High School in Accra with 1,000 devices.
Located in the heart of East Legon, the school is surrounded by both affluence and poverty. Many of the students are either house-helps in wealthy homes or come from impoverished neighbourhoods, Kweku says.
The JHS has a total of 453 students and 15 teachers. In a typical class of about 87 students, there are only 27 textbooks available. There are five outdated computers for the entire school. A library project initiated a few years ago is at a standstill.
What TAP will do is to provide 455 tablets for all students enrolled in the Junior High School, with an additional 20 tablets provided for their teachers. An additional 125 tablets will be made available to the basic school for in-school lessons.
TAP will ensure that all textbooks needed for the JHS students are uploaded onto the devices as well as other supplementary learning material. Regarding the mock-exams, TAP is in partnership with Finlite Group to provide test preparation applications.
For the basic school, TAP will provide some textbook and learning materials to improve literacy and numeracy skills. TAP will regularly evaluate and track the performance of the devices and their users.
Another pilot project will take place at Assin Kushia in the Central Region with support from the traditional head of the area, Nana Pra Agyensaim IV, who is also the paramount chief of Assin Owirenki Traditional Area. An e-learning centre will be established in that community.
With the help of funds from CSR budgets of companies, TAP is poised to make the public education system on the continent the torch-bearer in providing quality education for Africans.
By Bernard Yaw Ashiadey | B&FT Online | Ghana
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