As of 2023, only 15% public primary schools, 13% public JHSs had access to functioning ICT facilities — EduWatch

A new report released by Africa Education Watch has revealed that an overwhelming majority of public primary and junior high schools in Ghana lack functioning ICT facilities.

This, the education think tank, says, poses a threat to the country's goal of promoting digital literacy.

The report titled "Bridging the ICT Facilities Gap in Ghana's Basic Education System: A Fundamental Step towards Digital Literacy" analyzed ICT infrastructure in the country's public basic schools.

It finds that only 15% of the over 15,000 public primary schools and 13% of over 11,000 public JHS had functional ICT facilities by the end of the 2022/2023 academic year.

"Ghana in pursuit of Digital Literacy has introduced Computing as a compulsory subject in upper primary and JHSs with the aim of helping learners to acquire basic ICT literacy.

“This requires that primary and JHS pupils must have ICT facilities to facilitate effective teaching and learning of Computing," said the report summarised via Facebook by Kofi Asare, EduWatch Executive Director.

The report further noted that while national electricity coverage in Ghana exceeds 80%, only 44% of primary schools and 63.9% of JHSs had access to power supply as of 2020, hampering the effective use of ICT even where facilities are available.

It recommended that political parties address the ICT gap in their 2025-2028 education policies, and called on the Ghana Education Service and local governments to collaborate to electrify all basic schools and fund electricity bills to support ICT integration.

"ICT facilities must be made available in every basic school and accessible to both primary and JHSs for effective teaching and learning of Computing," it stated.