The Minister of Education, Betty Mould Iddrisu has challenged a Senior Lecturer at the Economics Department of the University of Ghana, Dr. Kwadwo Adjei Tutu to substantiate claims that only about 20 percent of all graduating students from public Senior High Schools gain admission into universities.
The lecturer at a press conference on Monday September 1, bemoaned the increasing privatization of basic schools, living the public basic schools poorly resourced to churn out good students. He also charged the Government for misplaced emphasis on ICT education when many pupils remain poor at reading and writing.
According to Dr. Adjei Tutu, Government could be charged for causing financial loss to the state with the distribution of 6,000 laptops to pupil�s, when the same resources could be used to provide libraries, books and proper supervision for pupils.
However, reacting to the claims by the senior lecturer on Citi FM�s Eyewitness News on Monday September 19, Education Minister Betty Mould Iddrisu disagreed with the lecturer�s diagnosis of the problem.
She noted that although it is true that teacher supervision is key, the importance of ICT education cannot be over emphasized.
She also said �I am very sad when I hear people just playing around with figures in that way. I would like to know where he got his statistics from, those are not the statistics of the Ghana Education Service or the National Council on Tertiary Education because we are dealing with a real life issue.
�It is incomprehensible to me how anyone can think that a mobile library can solve the problem of numeracy and literacy in this country. Computer is a literacy program, ICT is a tool, it teaches the children how to read and write�.
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