He explained that recent strategic interventions aim to digitally transform the environment in SHSs to ensure that graduates of the country’s education system can fully participate in and contribute to the fourth industrial revolution.

The Vice President and flagbearer of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) made these remarks at a ceremony in Kumasi to inaugurate Opoku Ware School as the first Smart School in the country.

The Vice President inaugurated a dedicated school block named after the current President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

The Nana Akufo-Addo Smart Block has classrooms fitted with digital devices, including Smart Boards, computers, and Internet to facilitate usage.

On March 25, 2024, President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo launched the Ghana Smart Schools Project in Accra and said existing facilities in public Senior High Schools are to be transformed into Smart Schools and new structures built in schools where necessary.

Under the Project, students in high schools are to be given free computer tablets to facilitate learning.

Teachers and staff of the Ghana Education Service are also to benefit from free laptops to facilitate research, teaching, and learning under a separate arrangement.

Both the laptops and the tablets have downloaded learning materials, including textbooks.

An obviously elated Education Minister, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, told the brief ceremony at Opoku Ware School campus in Kumasi, “Ghana cannot be left out of the digital age.”

“Ghanaian students must face the 4th industrial revolution with a sense of pride and a mindset for growth,” he said to a cheering crowd of students.

Vice President Bawumia, who has been in the region on a campaign tour for the past three days, described the occasion as historic.

“Ghana is among the few countries in the world where the government has supplied students with tablet computers, and this is to ensure the future does not elude our children.”

The headmaster of the school, who is also the National President of the Conference of the Heads of Assisted Schools (CHASS), Rev. Fr. Steven Owusu Sekyere, pledged good use of the facilities.

He also said measures have been put in place to check abuse.

The Bishop of the Archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Kumasi, Bishop Gabriel Yaw Anokye, commended the government for efforts at transforming educational institutions.

The Vice President presented tablets to some students, with all senior high schools in the region expected to distribute the tablets to students at no cost.

A total of some 1.2 million children in public senior high schools across the country are to benefit from the free gadgets.

The Vice President was accompanied by some members of Parliament, senior party officials, and education managers.

With the official distribution launched, high schools across the country are to distribute the gadgets to students to enhance their learning.

The distribution began in March, and many schools have already distributed the tablets to their students under the different phases of the project’s distribution plan.

The Ghana Smart Schools Project is intended to strengthen and enhance quality, delivery, and outcomes in the Free Senior High Schools Programme, otherwise known as Free SHS.

Earlier this week, the government indicated it plans to introduce a law, the Free SHS Act, to back the programme.