You are here: HomeNews2020 10 01Article 1074067

Politics of Thursday, 1 October 2020

Source: rainbowradioonline.com

Provide us with the list of schools that you’ve connected to Wi-Fi - Apaak tells Bawumia

MP for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Abas Apaak MP for Builsa South, Dr. Clement Abas Apaak

The Deputy Ranking Member on the Education Committee of Parliament and MP for Builsa South, Dr Clement Abas Apaak has challenged Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia to provide the names of all the schools that have been connected to the free Wi-fi initiative.

The challenge comes after the Vice President disclosed in an interview on Asempa Fm that the current NPP administration has connected 80% of secondary schools to the free Wi-fi policy.

Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia revealed that 80% of Senior High Schools across the country have received free Wifi connections sponsored by the government.

According to him, the move is to help broaden the scope of education, Information, Communication and Technology (ICT), research and knowledge acquisition in these institutions.

“We promised to provide free Wifi to our secondary schools and thankfully, the Education Minister, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh and the Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful have worked very hard on this. I really salute them for this. At least 80% of all our Senior High Schools have now been connected to free Wifi, that is the data we have,” he said.

But Apaak has been challenged by the legislator to provide details on all the schools that have benefitted.

The MP said it is not wrong for people to ask the Vice President to provide the details to support his claims.

He stated that there are some 721 schools in Ghana and if the second gentleman of the land says 80% have benefitted from the policy, then per his calculation, we should have a list of 577 schools from the government.

In his statement, he said: “Ghana has a total number of 721 Senior High Schools. Though my maths has never been the best, I believe 80% of 721 is about 577.

Dr Mahamudu Bawumia is quoted to have said Government has installed free Wifi in 80% of Senior High Schools in a story written by Seraphine Akua Dogbey published on myjoyonline.com on 30 September 2020.

Is it wrong to ask Vice President Bawumia to furnish the good people of Ghana with the names and locations of the 577 out of the total of 721 Senior High Schools in Ghana are connected to WiFi?

To ensure further public verification of Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia’s “revelation” that 80% of Senior High Schools across the country have received free Wi-Fi connections sponsored by the government, it would also be further helpful to know the names of the 144 Senior High Schools yet to get Wi-Fi.

We have a right to verify the claims made by the Vice President on Asempa FM’s Ekosiisen show Wednesday, September 30, 2020.”