Government to pursue e-learning, teaching at all levels of education – Ntim Fordjour

The Association of Educational and Instructional Technologists, Ghana (AEITG) was on Wednesday inaugurated in Accra to help build education and learning pathway bridges through technology.

The AEITG will, among others, create awareness, advance the use of technology, provide professional development, improve multi-and trans-disciplinary designs and development through instruction.

Besides, the association will collaborate with global professional educational and instructional technologists while advancing the academic, professional and personal development of AEITG members.

The Deputy Minister of Education, Rev John Ntim Fordjour, said Ghanaian institutions were experiencing uncertainties regarding moving towards a sustainable digital learning and teaching process at all levels, especially at the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

He indicated that the government was therefore embarking on an agenda on all sectors at the strategic and policy levels to ensure that education embraces digitalization.

According to Rev Fordjour, the current demand for tertiary education as a result of Senior High School enrollment and the adoption of electronic learning (E-learning) could increase access to tertiary education.

He believed that e-learning could provide comparable access and quality education to all when practised effectively, and it could also help close the digital divide since many institutions in the country were hooked on the internet.

"We are in a world that is fast-changing, and it's coming along with some challenges whose solutions demand that we cannot do away with digital resources," Rev Fordjour stressed.

The Deputy Minister said e-learning is not an option and that stakeholders in education had no option to adjust and shift methods in a way that teaching and learning were delivered.

He said it was important to ensure that Information Technology Communication (ICT) was not only a subject taught in schools but rather translated into a skill that was acquired by the learner adding that "you need digital literacy to learn in this world and there is no excuse as to the location of study."

Rev Fordjour said the government was pursuing a number of reforms and sought to collaborate with the association to discuss the reforms that would be necessary for its quest to transform outcomes of education.

He said the reforms were aimed at realigning the foundation of the educational systems to sufficiently satisfy the dictates of the fourth industrial revolution.

The president of AEITG, Dr Josephine Larbi-Apau, said the association was embarking on a mission to promote and implement educational and instructional technologists in all sectors in both education and corporate organizations.

According to her, the association would focus on design development and management, open and distance education, virtual learning, teacher education, scholarships, student mentorship, corporate learning and training for both teachers and learners to enhance their capabilities.

Dr Larbi-Apau said learning today was not only influenced by global trends but also by innovations adding, that the association has the ability to influence learning outcomes by advocating the right balance of infrastructure to support the varied learning environment, the right balance of access to educational resources in all, right to physical and hands-on solutions.