Introduction

The latest digital transformation trend has made education’s digitalisation relevant and challenging to avoid in the development and growth of humans in today’s fast-changing world. Through the transformation, society is motivated to pursue the kind of education which seek to enhance students’ experience through digitalisation. In the educational process, digitalisation involves converting text, images, video, and audio into digital format that can be played by the computer.

In terms of civilisational growth, the digitalisation of education must be prioritised. Ghana has incorporated digitalisation as a cross-cutting issue into its education sector strategies. The Ghanaian government is committed to a comprehensive programme of rapid deployment and utilization of information and communication technology (ICT) in the education sector to transform the education system and, as a result, better the lives of Ghanaians.

ICT Policies and Programmes in Ghana

ICT is important in all areas of national life, including politics, economics, and social and cultural development (Hennessy et al., 2010). Without a doubt, it is rapidly transforming all aspects of existence. This has prompted the Ghanaian government to create ICT policies and programmes to guarantee the appropriate deployment, exploitation, and development of ICTs to accelerate the nation’s socio-economic growth.

ICT Policies in Ghana

Ghana ICT for Accelerated Development (ICT4AD) Policy, 2003

The policy clearly shows Ghana’s vision for the digital era. It outlined the policy commitments required to materialize the vision “to transform Ghana into an information-rich knowledge- based and technology-driven high-income economy and society”. This policy called for immediate and coordinated action to use ICT for economic development and social change in the nation. The strategy promotes ICT use in government and governance, education, health, agriculture, banking and finance, research capacity development, construction, supply chain management, human resource growth, etc.

ICT in Education (ICTE) Policy, 2015

Ghana released its ICT in Education Policy Framework in 2015, emphasising teacher training in digital skills and introducing ICT as a topic beginning in primary school, with aim to shaping teachers and students ability to succeed in the global marketplace and offer a better quality of life for the Ghanaian citizen. Since, distruptive technologies are already altering traditional business models and pathways to development, yielding significant gains, increased convenience, as well as supporting better access to services for consumers.

For instance, in 2016 alone, the digital economy was worth an estimated 11.5 trillion dollars worldwide, equivalent to 15.5 percent of global GDP. And it is forecast to reach 25 per cent in less than a decade, far outpacing the growth of the ‘traditional’ economy. The policy sought to transform the educational system to improve the quality of teaching and learning at the various levels of education and expand access to education, training, and research resources and facilities to produce cutting edge and skilled manpower for the growth of the country’s economy.

ICT Programmes in School Education

Collaborating with various development partners and non-governmental organisations, the Ghanaian government has launched several ICT education projects to transform the pre-tertiary education system. The projects align with the stated goals of the country’s ICT reforms. Some notable ICT projects presently being enacted in schools are as follows:

One Teacher One Laptop is a modern programme to improve lesson preparation, teaching, and learning outcomes. All government-employed teachers from kindergarten to senior high school are included in the target group.

The Girls in ICT project introduces primary and junior high school girls to scratch and the fundamental structures of programming applications, after which they compete as part of a training programme. ICT laboratories have been constructed in the schools of the girls who excelled in the competition. In addition, one hundred thousand Senior High School females were taught cyber security and data privacy to inspire young girls interested in careers in ICT. The programme encourages girls to dispel the myth that ICT education is only for boys.

The Ghana Learning Radio Reading Programme offers highly interactive and simple-to- follow reading lessons in English and the 11 formal Ghanaian languages of instruction for learners in Kindergarten two through fourth grade (Graphic Online, 2021). When schools closed during the Covid-19 crisis, it was an alternative learning intervention to keep children occupied with learning at home. Although the children are presently enrolled in school, this programme is intended to supplement their education.

The Mobile School Report Card (mSRC) project employs an android-based mobile phone application developed in 2014 to replace the paper-based School Report Card (pSRC) used in Ghanaian primary schools since 2011 to collect information about the teaching and learning environment in Ghanaian primary schools. It targeted elementary schools in 20 districts.

Making Ghanaian Girls Great (MGCubed) used qualified trainers in Accra studios to deliver live interactive arithmetic, English, and gender empowerment classes to remote classrooms via solar-powered and satellite-enabled technology (Dzinotyiweyi and Taddese 2020; Tsapali et al., 2021). Primary, junior high, and out-of-school girls are the intended audience. The initiative reached over 36,000 learners.

Ghana Reads is an initiative to increase universal literacy by utilising low-cost tablets and the Raspberry Pi, which contains the Basic eLearning Library (BeLL) — an offline digital library. Students study in small groups and at their own pace, with the assistance of trained instructors (Dzinotyiweyi and Taddese 2020). Fifty (50) schools from eight of the sixteen (16) regions in Ghana benefit from this project.

Eneza Education is a mobile-phone-based learning platform that allows users to access lesson plans and ask instructors clarifying questions via SMS. Teachers and primary and secondary students from rural and underserved regions were targeted. Over 6,500 instructors have been trained to use Ghana Eneza, which is used by one million students.

The Transform Ghana Project uses ICT to provide government services more efficiently and widely. The project contributes to developing an educational portal that facilitates knowledge sharing and provides teachers, students, parents, and researchers access to best-practice lesson plans, digital curriculum material, and teaching and learning tools. Also, it contributes to enhancing teachers’ networks and capacity building. In addition, the initiative seeks to connect 55 secondary schools with a significant need for connectivity. Senior high schools were the focus.

Ghana Accountability for Learning Outcomes Project (GALOP) seeks to improve the quality of teaching in basic schools while also increasing equity and accountability in Ghana’s educational system (Dzinotyiweyi and Taddese 2020; Tsapali et al., 2021). The project’s beneficiary schools have all received high-quality HP laptops and high-speed modems, making it simpler to collect and transfer data on teachers’ and students’ weekly attendance to provide school management solutions.

Instant Schools Network offers learners open educational resource material in subjects such as maths and science sourced from platforms such as Khan Academy and aligned with the local curriculum. The service is free to Vodafone customers and is intended for simple, low-cost devices with basic data connectivity (3G) (Dzinotyiweyi and Taddese, 2020). Students in primary and high school are among those targeted.

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative aims to improve access to and use of technology in impoverished and rural areas around the globe, with a special emphasis on underprivileged children. As the government sought to boost computer usage in schools, Ghana first agreed with OLPC to buy 10,000 XO laptops delivered in 2009.

Chalkboard Education provides schools with low-tech software and services to create and monitor training programmes on mobile devices without an internet connection (Tsapali et al., 2021). It aims to improve secondary education instruction and learning.

AkooBooks Audio is a platform and service supplier that converts African books into engaging audiobooks accessible via mobile phones. Its mission is to enhance secondary school teaching and learning.

The School Connectivity Project offers high-speed computers, printers, scanners, projectors, and servers to educational institutions. It is one of many initiatives undertaken by Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) to promote the development and use of ICT in (rural) Ghana.

OpenSTEM Africa promotes the effective teaching and learning of practical science in Ghanaian senior high schools by developing a Virtual Lab of practical science apps, which helps provide more opportunities for learners to engage with practical science; professional development for teachers to develop effective ICT-based teaching and learning approaches; and professional support for heads of science to help improve the experiential teaching and learning of the practical science syllabus. Important practical science apps have been connected to the Ghanaian curriculum. They are being co-developed to provide up to 100 interactive online virtual experiments in collaboration with the Centre for Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CENDLOS). With the local iBox server, the scientific apps will help up to 148 schools and up to 1.2 million senior high school students and staff via the internet.

STEM/STEAM Project is a Ministry of Education project by Protogroup to provide Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM) centers, Educational Kits, Training, and Curriculum in STEAM education throughout Ghana. Although the majority of the project is concerned with the construction of STEAM centers and the distribution of educational kits, there is an EdTech component that introduces elementary and secondary school students to the use of Learning Management Systems and Cyber Robotics Coding by the CoderZ: an innovative and fun learning platform for students worldwide that engages students through the use of 3D simulated robots. This initiative is still underway.

Secondary Education Improvement Programme (SEIP) funds the development and implementation of the i-box (a local file server that does not require internet access) and i- campus (a web-based server that requires internet access) technologies to provide supplemental educational materials to students in low-performing senior high schools. The initiative is expected to benefit 150,000 students in underperforming schools, 30,000 new secondary school students, 2,000 senior high school teachers and headmasters, and other education officials.

Digitalization of Higher Education in Ghana

In this digital era, efforts to integrate digitalisation in higher education in the face of a rapidly increasing student population present numerous opportunities. As digital technologies continue to transform academics, research, and community engagement at an exponential rate, the Ghanaian government, higher education institutions, and development partners have launched a variety of projects to leverage emerging technologies into Ghana’s higher education. Some notable programmes to incorporate digitalisation in Ghana’s higher education institutions include;

Access to Wi-Fi: Universities provide a wireless internet connection to registered students and faculty for academics and research. With the support of the World Bank, about thirteen universities operate free Wi-Fi systems in their institutions to promote e-learning and the administration of student records.

Learning Management Systems (LMS): Moodle and Sakai LMS are used by universities in Ghana to conduct distance learning programmes. The University of Ghana adopted the Sakai Learning Management System in 2012 as a learning platform for distance education programmes, shifting from a print-based to an online delivery method (Tagoe and Cole, 2020). Students and teachers can hold classes on Sakai while connected to the internet via the free Wi-Fi system.

Similarly, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology has taken advantage of the Wi-Fi systems and has put in place an E- learning and virtual classroom portal in addition to students’ application called AIM, where students can check their registration status and results, among others. The University of Cape Coast has also implemented the Moodle e-learning platform with added portals for lecturers and students.

Digital Libraries: Seven of Ghana’s nine state university libraries have begun some form of digitisation project. Access to digital material and services such as online databases, institutional repositories, online public access catalogues (OPACs), and World Wide Web (www) resources is made possible by digital libraries.

Transforming Teaching, Education, and Learning (T-TEL) is a non-profit organisation founded in Ghana in 2020. It builds on a six-year Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded education strengthening project in Ghana (2014-20) that aimed to transform pre-service teacher education in Ghana by improving the quality of teaching and learning in relevant national organisations, institutions, and all 40 Colleges of Education. T- TEL’s work included developing insights into how educational technology (for example, mobile technology such as tablets) can improve access to quality education information, support effective teaching and learning, and allow tutor communities of practice. T-TEL was also engaged in the formation of a Virtual Learning Taskforce for Teacher Education to reduce educational disruption caused by Covid-19.

Issues and Challenges Confronting School and Higher Education Levels

The ICT projects aim to boost the use of ICT- based applications in Ghana’s educational system. On the other hand, concerns such as sustainability and difficulty of scaling up ICT initiatives across these levels of education require considerable attention.

Issues and Challenges at the School Education Level

Most development programmes in classroom education have been piloted at the school level. Insufficient ICT resources restrain the expansion of small-scale projects to serve more students and enhance intervention effectiveness. The few computers the government provides to teachers and students to allow digital devices in teaching and learning are of poor quality. Other problems with these computers include unknown brands, inflated costs, etc. Moreover, ICT programmes initiated and not entirely implemented by the previous government are not completed by the next government, notably when the governments’ political ideologies differ. As a result, these initiatives benefit only a few students, and people with disabilities are frequently marginalised.

Dzinotyiweyi and Taddese (2020) conducted a “country-wide research review of EdTech research at the school-based level in Ghana” which revealed that, electricity is available in 25% of primary schools, 49% of junior high schools, and 78.6% of senior high schools. It was also revealed that, 8.4% of primary schools have access to the internet for teaching and learning, 18.7% of junior high schools have access to the internet for teaching and learning, and 39.4% of senior high schools have access to the internet for teaching and learning.

Furthermore, computers are accessible in 3.5% of primary schools, 13% of junior high schools, and 34.9% of senior high schools for teaching and learning. Access to a reliable electricity source is a widespread problem. More so, disparities between rural and urban areas regarding access to computers, internet connectivity, and electricity are increasing.

In Ghana, students cannot use mobile phones during their pre-tertiary schooling. Using a cell phone in class is a severe violation. School officials may discipline or confiscate the mobile phone if a student violates this regulation. According to Tsapali et al, 97% of urban households in Ghana have access to a mobile phone. In addition, access to mobile is common even in rural households. The authors asserted that the ICT in Education policy seeks to serve as a roadmap for implementing the ICT4AD policy’s education sector priorities. Still, it lacks guidance on addressing the best new educational technology developments, such as the recent increase in mobile phone ownership and concerns about its use in schools. Mobile phone prohibitions are a disservice to today’s students and teachers (Fisher and Frey 2010; Keengwe et al., 2014).

Issues and Challenges at the Higher Education Level

According to Lusigi, higher education institutions (HEIs) in Africa are underperforming in two worldwide university rankings. Lusigi cited a low priority for the acquisition and better use of advanced technologies in Africa’s HEIs as the main attribute to the under performance. As is the case in most African institutions of higher learning, HEIs in Ghana are not exceptional. Ghana’s HEIs digital provisions are insufficient, and digital teaching and learning are not prioritised enough in their curricula. In addition, the higher education system in Ghana is characterised by insufficient computers in the library, low internet bandwidth, very low information retrieval skills, inadequate ICT training, and a paucity of competent Information Technology (IT) professionals (Appiah and Abdul-Rahim, 2021). Consequently, the effectiveness in carrying out their mandates suffers.

Suggestions

•   To improve the integration of ICT in the education system, the government, corporate sector, and civil society organisations must develop plans and strategies to ensure a sufficient supply of human resources, computers, internet connectivity, and electricity at the various levels of education in the country.
•   To ensure that existing and new projects are integrated into the new planning process for the deployment of ICT in schools, well-established laws and legal, regulatory, and institutional structures must be put in place.
•   Policymakers must develop policies that do not completely ban the use of mobile phones in schools while still allowing students to learn critical life skills related to phone usage.
•   The acquisition and improved use of modern ICT must be a top concern for Ghana’s institutions of higher learning.
• HEIs must provide a digital framework that fosters a secure, adaptable, and useful digital environment.