‘Feed the children first before digitizing their books’

TV3’s broadcast journalist, Johnnie Hughes is asking Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia to leave the SHS students out of his digitization drive.

He urges the Vice President to prioritize fundamental needs such as textbooks and feeding for the children.

Hughes emphasized the importance of addressing these basic necessities before embarking on ambitious digital projects like the ‘One Student, One Laptop’ initiative Bawumia wants to embark on.

During the ‘JohnnysBite’ show on 3Fm, he highlighted the delay in providing textbooks for the new curriculum, expressing concern that the implementation, which was intended to adopt a learner-based approach, had not been completed even after more than five years.

He said, “You have not finished giving the children textbooks for the new curriculum. You have not finished changing the structure in the classroom because you say the new curriculum is going to be learner-based from 2018 till today, you haven’t finished. More than five years.”

The journalist also drew attention to the ongoing strike of school feeding caterers, pointing out that the government's plan to digitize the school feeding program suggests it is out of touch with the reality on the ground.

“There is another one that also says we are digitizing the school feeding program. The Vice President on an occasion said we’re digitalizing school feeding. Is the Vice President aware that the school caterers have been on strike? Or he doesn’t know? The school feeding caterers have been on strike!” he exclaimed.

Moving on, Mr Hughes questions the rationale behind the Vice President's previous remarks about using QR codes to purchase food (waakye) ignoring the practical realities of daily life that will throw defeat his idea.

“Was it not the same Vice president who told us that we’re going to use QR codes to go and buy Aunty Muni Waakye? Do we buy waakye with QR code? What kind of waakye is that? Or we’ll now order the waakye from the Google Play store? What’s going on?”

He added, “The basic things that we have to do, we have failed to have those basic things and we’re always making promises. We’ve grown past that - Ghanaians have seen through all those things.”

Mr Hughes highlighted past unfulfilled promises of Dr. Bawumia including the "One Teacher, One Laptop" and "Every Child with a Tablet" initiatives, as well as every "Ghanaian to have a bank account." He criticized the government for failing to deliver on these commitments and stressed the importance of prioritizing essential services over unfulfilled ambitious projects.

“One teacher, one laptop we no finish. Every child will have a tablet, we no finish. Every Ghanaian will have a bank account, we no finish. There’ll be no home in this country by 2018 that will have toilet or water problems, we no finish. We’ll convert all roads in Ghana to concrete roads, we no finish,” he expressed.

The journalist concluded by urging Vice President Bawumia to focus on resolving fundamental challenges.

“Let’s do the basic things and tell your boss to stop talking about free water and free electricity because we are paying painfully for it,” he said.