MEST, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation’s Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning, launched its event, “Advancing EdTech: A Forum for Innovation in Ghana”, aimed at addressing the challenges and opportunities within Ghana’s education sector.
The event took place from August 2nd to 3rd at the La Palm Royal Beach Hotel in Accra.
It tackled the pressing challenges and explore opportunities within Ghana’s education sector, using technological advancements to drive positive change.
Why This Matters
The forum sought to create an actionable roadmap for increasing the adoption of technology in education delivery and experience and contributing to the transformation of Ghana’s education sector.
Event Day 1
The event brought together a diverse group of stakeholders, including representatives from the education and technology sectors, to foster collaboration and co-create strategies for leveraging technology to revolutionize education in Ghana.
The event kicked off with a keynote by the Minister of Education, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, who highlighted some government achievements including the Free SHS program and improvement in BECE scores.
The event continued with a fireside side chat with Larisa Akrofie from the Mastercard Foundation to discuss the foundation’s efforts and the word they’ve putting in EdTech in Ghana.
This was followed by a panel discussion on enabling government support for Edtech which was joined by Kafui Prebbie, CEO of TechAide, Member of Parliament Prince Armah, and Nana Gyamfi Adwabour, Executive Director of the National Distance Learning and Open Schooling.
The discussion focused on how the government could be more open to using Edtech solutions in the classroom and the current friction in the use of EdTech with the government and teachers.
An interesting point touched on during the discussion was the fact that there was no official EdTech policy or framework put out by the government yet.
The final panel discussion for the day was on empowering learners and practitioners in Ghana where the panelists discussed the current tools available for practitioners and some of the challenges faced in trying to use EdTech in the field for students.
Day 2
The second day kicked off with a lengthy panel discussion on Enhancing collaboration between Ed Tech and Stakeholders. The discussion focused on how collaboration could be better and how data could be used to help in more interventions with Edtech.
The discussion also focused on if teachers and practitioners are well equipped to use some advanced EdTech tools for their students.
Panelists also spoke about how there was some friction when it came to data collection from teachers and practitioners and help local culture and attitudes tend to hinder progress.
There was some discussion on if there were enough data-driven programs to measure the effectiveness and success of EdTech in Ghana.
The event had two town hall discussions with different groups having interactive discussions on addressing infrastructure and access challenges in EdTech implementation and how to leverage development partnerships for EdTech innovation and implementation.
There was a presentation from T-TEL on how their organisation is helping to improve education among teachers and students. The group shared some data points on how they leveraged simple tools to increase the performance of teachers amongst students.
The event closed out with a final panel discussion on inclusive and sustainable Edtech solutions for special needs.
The panel focused on the current state of special needs education, the tools being used, and what gaps are still existing in the space.
The discussion also centered on the attitudes and culture of special needs students and the lack of empathy shown for their pain points in education.
The event wrapped up with closing remarks from MasterCard Foundation and from Melissa Nsiah, Director of Portfolio Management of MEST Africa.
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