The African Business Centre for Developing Education (ABCDE) has signed a partnership agreement with a leading Ghanaian EdTech company, eCampus to enable the two organisations to collaborate on programmes to provide valuable e-learning resources for Ghanaian students especially those at the Senior High School and Tertiary levels.
E-learning is fast becoming widely adopted in Africa through the increasing availability of information and communications technology and the latest educational apps. Self-improvement and distance education courses which once seemed inaccessible are now becoming increasingly available. A number of regional e-learning providers use educational technology (EdTech) to deliver online courses throughout the region, with a wide offering of course titles to students, teaching staff and anyone who has an interest in learning. eCampus is one such EdTech company.
Speaking at a brief signing ceremony held at Africa House, Asylum Down, the office of ABCDE, an NGO that champions mentorship, internship, STEM education and e-learning, the Chairman of ABCDE and former Minister of Education and for Trade and Industry, Dr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah underscored the importance of digitizing the Ghanaian curriculum and educational system. He noted that with the advent of ICTs and the strong take-up by Ghanaians and Africans of mobile technology, education is now becoming much easier for all citizens to access.
He stated that “the future of education will be mobile, ubiquitous, pervasive and no longer necessary in classrooms. This means that it is now possible for anyone to educate themselves or their children virtually, anywhere, with or without a teacher, and with content that will increasingly be audiovisual, animated and accessible through the Internet and mobility.”
Spio-Garbrah emphasized the importance of Ghana and Africa improving very quickly and efficiently our methods of teaching and learning. He invited corporate Africa to take a greater interest in what is happening in classrooms which were producing the graduates the corporate world hires. He further admonished both organizations to play their roles effectively to ensure that every Ghanaian Senior High School student has access to the relevant e-learning content by the close of the year 2020.
Chief Executive Officer of eCampus LLC, Mr Cecil Nutakor expressed delight at the partnership and indicated that his company would put in its best efforts towards achieving the objectives of the partnership. eCampus has developed a suite of courses mostly in maths, English, science, social studies and French which enable students to test themselves against various benchmarks and obtain instant results as well as guidance for self-improvement.
ABCDE rolls out its e-learning program next year and calls on all corporate organizations and private individuals interested in partnering to contact them through email info@abcdeafrica.org.
