ICT- based distance education project was launched in Legon by The University of Ghana to serve as an e-learning hub for distance education students within and outside Ghana who enroll at the University.The purpose of the project is to improve the quality of teaching, learning and increase access to the university programmes by transforming existing print-mode distance education programme of the university to an ICT-based version. To make learning easier for the students the project also aims to develop suitable and modern ICT (hardware, software, networking) tools. The university was pursuing the ICT based distance education project to support governments efforts in increasing access and quality in tertiary education.
“It is indeed a global challenge to make higher education widely accessible and cost-effective, while maintaining quality in the face of the growing demand,” The Minister for education added. According to the minister the deployment of ICT would replace and transform the traditional memory based learning into education that stimulates thinking and creativity necessary to meet the challenges of the 21st century. Developing countries have witnessed that these technologies have an enormous potential for knowledge dissemination, knowledge acquisition, effective learning and the development of more efficient education services. The overall policy goal for integrating ICT into education was to enable graduates from Ghanaian educational institutions, formal and non-formal to confidently and creatively use ICT tools and resources to develop the requisite skills and knowledge needed to be active participants in the global knowledge economy by 2015. Ministry of Education was working towards providing a common network platform for an e-education infrastructure which will provide facilities for the internet services to be put in place for the use of all institutions.
The Chinese Ambassador to Ghana, H.E Wenzhe YU, has said that the Chinese government is supporting the project with a concessional loan of US $8.5 million and that the implementing institution Tsinghua Unispendor Corporation Ltd of Tsinghua University is also from China. The project running in Ghana was in line with some of the decisions made by China at the recent Forum on China-Africa in Egypt last month, which included the expansion of its training and scholarship programmes to Africa.Ambassador Wenzu YU admitted that with an enhanced commitment to electronic education, greater and better teaching and learning opportunities would be opened to lift the fortunes of Ghana's educational system to a new and higher pedestal. He urged all Ghanaians to embrace and support the project because it will positively impact on human resource development and for that matter country as whole.
