Minister of Education Dr. Yaw Adutwum
The Minister of Education Dr. Yaw Adutwum has directed all colleges of education to bear the cost of the wifi provision which was made available for secondary schools.
The Minister in a letter to the providers, Busy Internet said his outfit has discovered that the 46 colleges of education were benefitting from the wifi services and that has overburdened the free senior high school budget.
The schools that have benefitted from the installation of Busy Internet are to refund the cost back to the free SHS secretariat.
Busy Internet have also been instructed to bill all the colleges directly.
Aside from that, the original cost of Ghc6.8 million paid for by the colleges will be shared by the colleges.
Background
Vice President Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia in 2020 commissioned the government’s flagship Free Wi-fi for Tertiary Institutions Project in Accra.
The project forms part of the government’s ongoing programme to provide Free Wi-fi to all 722 public Senior High Schools and other educational institutions.
The initiative he said in that year was to cover 46 Colleges of Education, and at least 15 traditional Public Tertiary Institutions across the country, 13 of which are in the operational zone of ECG.
The two other public tertiary institutions, University of Development Studies (UDS), Tamale and the University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR), Sunyani as well as the campuses of newly created University Colleges in northern Ghana, were to be served by the Northern Electricity Company (NEDCO) in collaboration with GRIDCO and NITA because they did fall under ECG.
The 13 beneficiary institutions are: University of Ghana, Legon; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi; University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast; University of Education, Winneba; Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Accra; University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS), Ho; University of Mines and Technology (UMaT), Tarkwa; and University of Professional Studies, Accra (UPSA). The rest are Regional Maritime University, Accra; Ghana Technology University College (GTUC), Accra; Ghana Institute of Journalism, Accra; Ghana Institute of Languages, Accra and National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI), Accra.
He had also announced that the Free Wi-Fi was to cover all tertiary and secondary institutions from next year.
The beneficiary institutions include, but not limited to all Technical Universities, all Colleges of Education, all Nursing Training Colleges, and all Senior High Schools.
