By: Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh
Email: [email protected]
Ghana’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) devices assembling giant, Rlg Communications Limited, has announced that the firm’s electronic products including Television (TV) sets and fridges will hit the Ghanaian market this year.
The electronics branch of the most dynamic ICT firm in Ghana and beyond is expected to create 2000 jobs in the country.
This is also in the Chief Executive Officer of Rlg Communications Limited, Mr Roland Agambire’s quest to create 1 million jobs for Ghanaian youth within some few years.
The Group Head, Legal and Corporate Affairs of Rlg Communications Limited, Mr. Prosper Harrison Addo made this known at the graduation of the first batch of the Ministry of Education Teachers’ ICT and laptop distribution project in Accra, yesterday.
According to him, teachers would be one of the first groups to benefit, through schemes including hire-purchase, once production starts this year.
The nationwide Information and Communication Technology (ICT) training for 50,000 teachers project across the country was launched in December, last year, by President John Dramani Mahama.
The project aims at improving the teachers’ knowledge base on ICT. They are also expected to pass on the knowledge acquired from the training to their pupils.
To this end, Rlg Institute of Technology, a subsidiary of Rlg Communications, had been contracted by government to train the teachers in the nationwide project.
The leading Ghanaian ICT firm will also provide the teachers with laptops for the first phase of the project.
Launching the project in Accra, last year, Mr. Mahama said: ‘it is necessary to train yourself in computer and ICT, both to make your work easier and also to be able to help your pupils in terms of the use of computer and ICT.’
In the execution of this project, our understanding was that this programme would compliment an ongoing project by the Ministry of Education, which is the Basic School Computerization Project which has seen 60,000 laptops supplied to basic schools across the country already, Mr. Addo added.
He revealed that Rlg is upgrading the operating software of all the 60,000 laptops to Microsoft Windows 7 at no cost to government.
Eventually, we do expect our teachers to help our children to be literate in the use of the computer for research and new teaching methods.
Under this project, training is conducted in 46 Rlg Institute of Technology centers across the country. The teachers are offered practical and hands-on experience on digital literacy, including research strategies, browsing and efficient utilization of the computer.
The Director General of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mrs. Benedicta Naana Biney said Ghana could not afford to be left behind in the ICT world.
She was, therefore, grateful to Rlg Communications for partnering the Ministry of Education to offer ICT training and distribution of laptops to 1,250 teachers from the Greater Accra Region, who have graduated from the programme.
Mrs. Biney was confident that the training given to the teachers would empower them with the necessary skills to teach the pupils.
She used the occasion to assure the management of Rlg that the GES would continue to collaborate with them to deepen the existing relationship.
Addressing the beneficiaries (basic school teachers), the Minister of Environment, Science and Technology and Innovation, Dr. Joe Oteng Adjei revealed that plans were afoot to phase out chalks in the classrooms.
He charged ICT firms, including Rlg, to come with ICT software solutions that would help address the basic problems of the country.
Dr. Adjei advised the beneficiary teachers to use the knowledge acquired through training for the benefit of the pupils and also take good care of the brand new laptops they received from Rlg after the graduation.
In all, 1250 basic school teachers from the Greater Accra were graduated and presented with certificate to attest to having undertaken this training.
Additionally, each teacher was given a laptop to assist them in research and preparation of their syllabuses. These laptops are covered by 24 months warranty.