Education Ministry to launch the free tablets for SHS students, starting with Opoku Ware school
The Ministry of Education has announced the rollout of free tablets for Senior High School students, beginning with Opoku Ware School in Kumasi within the next two weeks.
This initiative, launched in March, aims to provide digital learning content and electronic devices to all senior high and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) schools nationwide.
Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, emphasized that Opoku Ware School will be the first to implement the policy, highlighting the numerous benefits.
“Opoku Ware is going to be the first Senior High School converted to a smart school. Within two weeks, we are going to launch the Opoku Ware smart school program,” he stated.
The Smart School Project, part of the Free Senior High School policy, targets the distribution of 1.3 million tablets to students. According to the Ministry, these tablets will feature a four-inch screen, four gigabytes of RAM, and a battery lasting seven to eight hours. Additionally, they will include a solar-based battery pack, water resistance, and a quad-core processor.
In the first phase, the selected school will receive ten smart boards and other resources to support the program. Dr. Adutwum also mentioned plans to enhance internet connectivity and install solar panels at the school.
“At least about ten classrooms will have smart boards. Eventually, when you become a smart school fully, it means all other classes will have a smart board,” he explained.
The initiative will allow students on the platform to log into model school classes and participate. Assignments and classwork will be conducted on the system and graded by artificial intelligence. “Not everything will be online, but with time, the home, all class activities, and others will be online,” Dr. Adutwum added.
To support the digital learning environment, the Ghana Knowledge and Skills Bank is digitizing textbooks.
“The bank is going to have all the textbooks you will need. We are digitalizing the textbooks. If you are reading a textbook and it mentions the Egyptian pyramid, there will be a hyperlink, and when you click on it, it will take you to Egypt to see the pyramid,” Dr. Yaw Adutwum concluded.
