The Minority in Parliament has criticized the government’s implementation of the One Student, One Tablet initiative, claiming that the Education Committee has been bypassed and sidelined in the rollout process.
President Akufo-Addo announced plans to distribute smart tablets to 1.3 million senior high school students nationwide during the launch of the Ghana Smart Schools Project in Accra on Monday, March 25, 2024.
This initiative seeks to provide technological skills to students benefiting from the free SHS policy, aligning with the government’s commitment to utilizing technology for educational progress.
Dr. Clement Apaak, Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament, voiced dismay over the committee’s exclusion from involvement in this initiative during an interview.
He emphasized the committee’s duty to oversee all educational affairs in the nation and bemoaned the lack of opportunities for committee members to inspect the tablets, comprehend their content, and evaluate their usefulness prior to the policy’s implementation.
“We have been sidelined because ideally, we have a mandate to oversee every and anything to do with the education of this country. So for the committee not to have been allowed to see the tablet for a demonstration of how they were to be used, to be done for us to see and assess, to get a better understanding of the content thereof, clearly it is a slap in the face of the committee.
“It suggests that the committee is not being given the needed recognition that it deserves. I can tell you that the committee is not enthused at all about the way and manner this tablet issue has been handled.”