Transforming education: MoE partners IT firm to implement digital education

The Government, through the Ministry of Education has signed an Memorandum of Understanding with Real Studios Limited, an Information Technology company, to implement the Digital Education System (DES).

The project is an initiative that combines hardware, software and digital media to transform the education sector in Ghana from analog to a more accessible digital one. It uses electronic reading devices backed by internet systems to offer digital books, audiobooks, video tutorials and interactive educational materials. 

It is being undertaken in an effort to support the Government of Ghana’s free education policy by providing quality education materials readily accessible to every student in the country, irrespective of their status, geographical location or infrastructural limitations.

The Digital Education system or Digital Classroom is designed to make education accessible to all Ghanaians from the urban areas to the very remote rural areas.

It aims to provide world-class learning experience to students all over the country through a series of electronic devices and software systems designed from ground up as learning tools that connect teachers, students, schools, publishers and the Education Ministry on one platform.

It enables students carry and access an entire library of books from nursery to university on a single device that can fit into their pockets. It also provides teachers with the ability to send lectures and notes to students all over the country.  

Why this initiative & its projected Impact

This initiative is being introduced to further enhance education in the country by addressing the challenges associated with accessing quality education materials and engaging students in extra curricula activities while they are at home.

Through the Digital classroom, students can access unlimited education materials and research, it also provides ‘Out of Classroom’ learning using interactive virtual lessons to enable students learn outside the classroom at their own pace and preference.

The system expands the limits of the classroom and traditional teaching by enabling teachers create lessons and lectures that can be accessed remotely by thousands of students nationwide, expanding the learning experience beyond the scope of the classroom.

The initiative also introduces localised vocational and industrial training modules to train not just the formally educated but also the informally educated using audiovisual tutorials created in the various local dialects to train the workforce needed for Ghana’s National Industrialization agenda.

Pilot program and national rollout plan

As part of its implementation, a pilot study is to be undertaken in five districts to test the feasibility of the system in a typical Ghanaian classroom before full-scale nationwide implementation. This is to adapt the system’s core technologies, reading devices, web systems and content distribution platforms to the local infrastructure.

The pilot test is to demonstrate the system as a non-distracting classroom tool while assessing students and teachers ability to utilise the system effectively. All aimed at identifying and addressing obstacles and evaluating the Socio-economic impact of the Digital classroom to advice its national rollout by the Education Ministry.

The Digital education system is an initiative spearheaded by Real Studios Limited, a wholly owned Ghanaian Information Technology Research and Development company building world class technologies for Africa.

Interview with Real Studios Limited CEO

In an interview with the CEO of Real Studios, Muni I. Reindorf, he outlined the roadmap for implementing the Digital classroom.

One highlight is to build a factory in Ghana to assemble the electronic reading devices and accessories needed to sustain the project after implementation as part of the national industrialisation agenda under the 1D1F initiative.

The factory will use locally sourced materials to build devices designed to withstand the harsh usage requirement of the typical Ghanaian classroom.

He also stated the fact that Real Studios is undertaking this initiative together with the Ministry of Education in an effort to address the constraints faced by the current analog education model by introducing a digital education system, intended to; provide unlimited access to quality learning materials, address the theory based curriculum with practical training using video lessons, and improving information dissemination between the Ministry of Education, Schools, Teachers, Students and other stakeholders.

All aimed at making quality education accessible in every school, in every district nationwide.

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