The Minister of Primary, Secondary and Technical Education of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Tony Mwaba Kazadi, has described as inspiring Ghana’s recent efforts to overhaul its education sector to align it to the growing quest for technology-driven education globally.
Speaking during a courtesy call on his colleague Minister of Education, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, in Accra, the Congolese Education Minister observed that through some practice and progressive strategies, Ghana had led the way in education transformation on the continent.
“We are in Ghana for a noble reason; Ghana inspires us in the DRC with your school feeding programme. Our President has decided to introduce the same in our country to keep our students in school.
Our President and Prime Minister have also decided to introduce free education in high schools and because Ghana is already implementing the same, we decided to come here to learn the lessons,” he told the press shortly after discussions with Dr Adutwum.
Mr Kazadi is leading a Congolese government delegation on a working visit to Ghana to study some ongoing reforms and strategies in Ghana’s education space.
The visiting minister said DRC was keen to learn about Ghana’s adaptation of technology into its education space and cited, in particular, ongoing projects to transform educational facilities into smart schools.
“The quality of education we give to our children today has to be relevant to tomorrow’s technological advancements. That is why our government asked us to come to Ghana to learn about technology solutions you are deploying in your schools and universities to make teaching and learning top-notch, like the Ghana Smart Schools Project being executed by a company called K A Technology”.
Dr Adutwum, after welcoming his Congolese counterpart, said the challenges of education delivery were common to countries on the continent and that regular exchange of ideas was important in addressing them.
“We have realised that the challenges are the same. Therefore, the solutions can be the same. We must not sit in our different countries looking for solutions when we could explore what has worked for our counterparts on the continent,” he said.
While in Ghana, Mr Kazadi and his delegation will tour some educational facilities and other information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructures and hold discussions with persons within the education sector.
He has since visited Accra Girls and Achimota School in Accra, where he interacted with student beneficiaries of the One Student, One Tablet initiative launched by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo Addo last month.