Private Partnership important in NEPAD e-school- Lee Ocran

Mr Lee Ocran, Minister of Education on Monday said government would collaborate with stakeholders in the private sector for partnership towards the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) e-school initiative in West Africa.

He said private sector participation was laudable since it would expand the access to quality education, prepare and equip individuals into the global economy.

Mr Ocran made the observation at the opening session of a two-day conference to facilitate Private Sector Investment and Support for the NEPAD e-school initiative in West Africa in Accra.

He noted that it was important to accelerate the infusion of technology into the educational revolution, adding that, the initiative adopted by NEPAD was based on the acquisition and application of technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

Mr Ocran pointed out that, to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, traditional methods of education and training could not address the scope and scale, therefore it was important to require a massive expansion of human learning.

“Technology has already revolutionised other areas of human life and the world must now harness it to learning and teaching, "he added.

Mrs Vivian Attah, Former Acting Director of Distance Learning Centre, said the new Public Private Partnership (PPP) model for the e-school initiative would provide connection to African schools as well as provide teacher and learning access to relevant online curriculum.

She said it would offer a long term solution to the sustainability of the e-school initiative and help address some of the challenges and constraints experienced in previous projects.

Mrs Attah said a major component of the new PPP was the development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure, considered essential to the achievement of long-term sustainable socio-economic development on the African continent.

“The PPP would provide businesses for everyone, assure and provide infrastructure for schools, provide industries the opportunity to create more products and services and contribute towards the attainment of the MDG’s regional and global integration,” she added.

NEPAD e-school is a multi-country, multi-stakeholder, continental initiative to teach ICT skills to young Africans in primary and second cycle schools, to improve the provision of education in schools through ICT applications and the use of the internet.

The first phase of the initiative was a demonstration project, which was participated by six schools each in 16 African countries to establish a body of knowledge, based on real life experiences to introduce ICT in schools across the Continent.**