Mr. Benjamin Kwasi Gyasi, Chief Director of the Ministry of Education, representing the Honourable Minister at the UNESCO-GPE virtual  Sub regional learning platform

It was a privilege to have Mr. Benjamin Kwasi Gyasi, the Chief Director of the Ministry of Education represent the Honourable Minister at the UNESCO-GPE virtual  Sub regional learning platform for Anglophone West Africa Introductory Meeting with Ministers of Education from Gambia, Liberia, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone on Thursday 27 May 2021

With the COVID having affected over 1.2 billion learners as of May 2020 because of nationwide school closures, the UNESCO-Global Partnership in Education (GPE) is a financial support for Education that aims to support Continued learning for children, particularly those most marginalized (rural children, girls, children living with disabilities and those who are displaced amongst others) ensured through the development, dissemination and delivery at scale of new and existing global and regional learning continuity approaches in response to the COVID-19 crisis.

The Sub regional consultations were aimed at identifying challenges and strengths to increase all countries’ participation and leadership at national and regional level, together with process requirements in terms of political engagement. It was also meant to obtain ministerial support and guidance for the way forward, especially concerning regional knowledge sharing on ICT in education and digital learning.

Mr. Gyasi shared the findings of technical reports on the analysis of the national enabling environment to ease the formulation of recommendations for the Project’s sustainability. Among some of the recommendations to address the learning needs of the most marginalised populations from the perspectives of Ghana were the need to improve accessibility to quality and affordable or free internet, compatible devices, and a well-resourced infrastructure in schools, importance of broadening efforts in developing Open Education Resources (OER) and Open Universities, and laying emphasis on Competency Based teacher training and support for teachers to use technologies and develop digital learning content to facilitate school based blended learning or support home-based distance learning. Ending his remarks, he further stated that it is important to train the Ghanaian to accept ICT as a part of our daily lives.