Communications Minister launches GIFEC cyber laboratory project at Dansoman 1 & 2 JHS

The Minister for Communications, Mrs. Ursula Owusu-Ekuful on Friday, December 14, 2018 launched the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications’ (GIFEC) cyber laboratory project at the Dansoman 1 & 2 Junior High School in the Ablekuma West Constituency.

Through this project, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful has equipped schools in the Ablekuma West Constituency with 200 computers.

Speaking at the project launch, the Communications Minister underscored the need to equip the younger generation with the requisite technological skills in order to survive in this computer age.

She added that exposure to technology should form part of socialization at the academic level, right from the kindergarten. This, she believed, would help children become adept in information technology.

“We need to give our children the digital skills that they need to be able to survive, compete and thrive in the new world that is unfolding before us. We think it is important that our children be introduced [to], and [be] proficient in the use of computers at a much earlier age. If I had my way, we would start from the kindergartens so that it becomes part of their training and becomes normal for them to use just like it is in other parts of the world,” she asserted.

Reiterating government’s determination to provide affordable yet quality education to Ghanaian children, the Communications Minister posited that over 1,200 schools nationwide, both JHS and SHS, have been equipped with computer laboratories.

“I believe ten schools are being equipped with computer laboratories and this is just the start. Around the country, we’ve been inaugurating computer laboratories for both senior high schools and junior high schools. Almost a thousand senior high schools, and 200 junior high schools have been equipped,” she disclosed.

The GIFEC cyber laboratory project is an initiative that seeks to facilitate the study of ICT in basic schools and Community Information Centres across the country, in an effort to enhance the knowledge of ICT.

The initiative forms part of the Cyber laboratory Programme School Connectivity Project, which aims at enabling the study and development of new technologies to help students improve their skills in ICT and contribute to the improvement of beneficiary institutions.