The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic and its associated protocol of social distancing has caused the closure of schools. Most children of school-going age are at home, simply waiting for the pandemic to be declared over and schools re-opened. In the meantime, they have no opportunity to receive education. This calls for an intervention that will ensure continuity in education while they remain at home.
The eDuBoost Covid-19 response is designed to facilitate the delivery of education to students while they remain at home. In the post-covid period, the intervention will become an integral part of education delivery in Ghana.
The eDuBoost response involves making digital devices available to school children and empowering teachers to be able to deliver lessons to the children remotely on the devices.
Under this response initiative, eDuBoost will allow schools to subscribe to a portal which shall enable schools to provide educational content to students remotely. The platform will be interactive; therefore students will be able to provide feedback, ask questions, submit assignments, and partake in tests from the comfort of their home. While some of the lessons will be prerecorded, others will be delivered live via the eDuBoost platform.
Over the last decade, telecommunications adoption, subscription and penetration in Ghana have been on a steady increase. More than any other country, Ghana has the highest mobile penetration rate in West Africa. According to GSMA Intelligence, mobile adoption stood at 55%, higher than regional average of 44.8%. Ghana’s telecommunications sector regulator, the National Communications Authority (NCA) indicates that as of March 2020, cumulative voice subscriptions stood at 41,959,298, constituting 135% of national population. Further, the NCA provides that there were 25,479,511 mobile data subscriptions by the first quarter of 2020. This constitutes almost 90% of the population of 31,072,940.
Given the substantial adoption of and subscription to both voice and data services, the deployment of eDuBoost will therefore be beneficial to many across the country. The stay-at-home and social distance protocols of the Covid-19 pandemic have also nudged many towards digital channels and platforms. Considering that people at home still need to be educated, eDuBoost will be welcomed as likely intervention by schools, parents and students.
The IT solutions industry in Ghana is highly underdeveloped. The school IT solutions industry is virtually virgin. Most of the IT companies are very small and they mostly do web development with total concentration on commercial entities and civil society organizations. For that matter, most of the schools setup and manage their own ICT training centres. Considering the high cost of undertaking such ventures and their limited knowledge in getting the best equipment and accessories, most the schools use obsolete computers, no LCD projector, poor ventilation and uncomfortable furniture.
The consequence of using old machines – frequent breakdown, huge repair cost and high energy consumption – are great worries to most school administrators as Ghana Education Service (GES) has made ICT education compulsory in schools. This makes eDuBoost a fitting intervention for delivery of not just ICT education but all subjects as well. eDuBoost thus make ICT an enabler, not just a subject in education.
Ghana has over 13,000 basic schools and nearly 1,000 senior high schools. Substantial number of these schools are privately-owned, decision making is very fast, they are very competitive and always looking for ways to standout. Indeed, this is a great gold mine to explore! Our innovative package also gives us very high penetration speed and continuous profitable business.
All our products and services are free of charge to schools or educational institutions. It is only the students who pay relatively small user fee for the use of the facilities. This enables school administrators to have fitting ICT platforms for teaching and learning. Our package also makes it possible for them to acquire school management software, e-learning software and games and state of the art website without any pressure on the school's financial resources.
Covid-19 is redefining models and setting a new agenda for the future. Many of the protocols and responses that are being adopted as a response shall remain relevant even beyond the pandemic. For instance, in the United States, the New York state government is exploring a new model where aspects of education will be delivered virtually. This realization emanates from measures the state took to deliver education through virtual means.
Similarly, the eDuBoost Covid-19 response will be managed in a manner that will transcend the period of the pandemic. Demand for this multifaceted intervention is therefore expected to be sustained on an increasing basis over the long term.
Due to Suku’s efficient operational management system, there will be little or no wastages in the implementation of the program. Best practices, due diligence and good corporate governance shall be observed to ensure effective deployment.
Further, subscription fees to be paid by students will help cater for operational, technical, maintenance and personnel costs associated with the initiative. The device donation will be a one-off occurrence so costs incurred in procuring and distributing them will be absorbed either through proceeds of subscription fees over medium to long term or through donation by philanthropic organizations and individuals.