Even China didn’t replace high school textbooks with laptops/tablets

Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia is fond of rattling and promising heaven on earth without delivering or doing any feasibility study. The evidence of his gamut of political promises dates back to 2008 and 2020. Ghanaians have not forgotten his 2016 and 2020 undelivered rosy promises for barely 8 years now.

The political chains of promises and failure to deliver define Vice President Dr. Alhaji Bawumia as not credible and fit for the office of Ghana’s presidency come the 2024 general elections. Politics and leadership are underpinned by credibility.

On the 7th of February, Dr. Bawumia delivered his Ghana’s new chapter speech at the University of Professional Studies. In his speech, he promised to give high school students laptops. The question is, does Dr. Bawumia know the true problems facing high school education in Ghana? The problem is not with the replacement of textbooks with laptops. To be laconic, textbooks are the core of SHS knowledge resource-based. These are the core aspects of teaching and learning.

Empty promises on the creation of a robotics lab without a solid infrastructural basis and attention paid to teachers portray the lack of understanding of the
problems confronting the Ghana Education Service and the free SHS. Looking at the condition and the environment of Ghanaian Senior High School, the government’s priority shouldn’t be replacing textbooks with laptops.

Even China, where the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is likely to purchase these laptops, has its high school education underpinned by the availability and frequent supply and distribution of textbooks. The crux of the matter is that the NPP, under President Akufo Addo, has neglected the development of quality education that former president John Dramani Mahama embarked on. Dr. Bawumia's replacement of textbooks with laptops strips him of his understanding of the problems confronting high school education in Ghana.

In any case, who said education in Ghana is all about senior high school? To NPP and Bawumia, education in Ghana is all about free SHS; there is no planning for infrastructural development in that sector; there is no proper planning for preschool; and most importantly, less or no attention is given to the research, development, and innovation base areas of our education sector.

If the NPP spent close to 70% of its total budget for education on just free SHS, then there is a huge problem that warrants a holistic, comprehensive review. Providing all SHS students with laptops and tablets is not a bad idea in reality, but where are the sustainable infrastructures that these gadgets will heavily rely on—stable internet, stable electricity, and proper ICT labs for proper storage after use?

Leaving the core of Ghana’s education in the hands of Dr. Bawumia and his NPP will lead to a recipe for another failure. What the current high school needs to enable teachers and students to study in a healthy, world-class, and productive academic environment is infrastructural development.

Quality infrastructure is underpinned by accessibility, distribution, and teachers' involvement in educational policy. Promising laptops while abandoning the uncompleted E-blocks commenced by Mahama shows how unwilling Dr. Bawumia and the NPP are to keep the quality of high school education on the back burner.

For the last three decades, the NDC has held the view that quality education is closely connected with a quality infrastructural base and teacher-centered planning and motivation. The reward of quality education is not gained through reckless political talks. Textbooks and quality educational infrastructure are the driving forces for academic excellence.

In a country where resources for education are meager, the allocation of resources must be done in a thoughtful and critical mind-based policy formulation and not based on political rhetoric. The close-to-eight-year track record of Dr. Bawumia has proven that he has nothing better to offer Ghanaians.

It is instructive that Ghanaians remain committed to the NDC and read
between the lines of the false promises of Dr. Bawumia in 2016 and 2020. Ghanaians deserve better, not lies. Ghanaians and quality education are based on the supply and availability of textbooks.

Dr. Alhaji Bawumia should know that, as Ghanaians, we have virtues. The virtue of being truthful is one of the greatest Ghanaian virtues that everyone from northern Ghana prides himself on. The people of northern Ghana cherish being truthful and keep it as a charge ‘to be truthful all the time.’

However, we have a leader who will say this and do otherwise, portraying lies as truth for Ghanaians to believe in him, which is unethical and dangerous for the economic, social, and political transformation of Ghana. Ghanaians must reject his scam and new chapter pledge. His old chapter exposes his deceit and failure.