Ensuring E-Safety Is Critical For Everyone---Savana Signatures

Acquiring education is a fundamental right for every citizen and a prerequisite for professional development and improving the living standards of the citizenry.

However, the advancement of technology has brought about a knowledge gap that needs to be filled with current ways of doing things.

Also, the novel Coronavirus which has hit the world, putting education on hold is one of the major challenges in the education sector.

The need to educate the public on handling ICT tools and the internet is paramount.

Savana Signatures in partnership with OXFAM Ghana through the Innovation for Transformative Education (ITE) project has taken an important role to help train and mentor teachers and students on staying safe online (E-safety) in two model schools (Sawla Girls Model Junior High School and Kpandai Girls Model Junior High School) in the Kpandai and Sawla districts in the Savannah and Northern regions of Ghana.

So far, 50 teachers including students are being trained on online safety as well as 20 participants selected as safe-online ambassadors who will be mentored to provide support to colleagues and safeguard them from online predators.

The project thus, Innovation for Transformative Education (ITE) aims to increase skills, knowledge, and safe practices online geared towards the productive use of information communication technologies.

According to the Project Manager, Mr. Raphael McClure Adomey, E-safety is the practice and precaution that is observed when using devices and the internet.

He added that, as a result of the covid-19, the majority of people are staying at home, thus leading to a rise in the use of the internet. This exposes them to cybercrimes, cyberbully, Scam, Phishing, Spam, E-harassment, and the likes.

Following this, there is the need to ensure that users as well as their computers and personal information are safe from crimes associated with using the internet.

He noted that internet safety which includes a variety of information, personal data, and property protection is really important and so everyone needs to be educated on the benefits of online safety.

“As the number of internet users continues to grow worldwide, individuals, governments, and organizations have expressed concerns about the safety of children and teenagers using the internet. This makes our role in educating the public on internet safety important”.

He observed that the internet has impacted many lives since its inception, therefore, the public needs to be trained to identify cybercrimes, cyberbully, Scam, Phishing, Spam, Adware, E-harassment, and avoid them.