Accra, Jan.25, GNA – Vivo Energy Ghana, marketers and distributors of Shell branded products and services has signed 500 students onto eCampus learning platform to encourage them to explore e-learning options to boost traditional classroom and textbook learning.
Out of the 500 students, 300 were females and 200 were males, and the step was to encourage more females to venture into the study of Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and related subjects at the higher levels of education.
The ‘eCampus’ is an application that enables students to learn, practice and do research on digital gadgets like mobile phones and computers.
Vivo Energy disclosed the support on Friday, in partnership with the African Business Centre for Developing Education (ABCDE), Vokacom, and eCampus at the commemoration of the ”International Day of Education” with students from the Achimota, Armed Forces, St. Thomas Acquinas, Accra Girls and PRESEC Legon Senior High Schools in Accra.
The theme, “Leaning for People, Planet, Prosperity and Peace,” aimed at examining the many ways learning could empower people, protect the planet, build shared prosperity and foster peace.
Mr Ben Hassan Ouattara, the Managing Director of Vivo Energy Ghana in a speech read on his behalf at the commemoration, said according to UNICEF, 258 million children and youth still do not attend school, and 617 million children and adolescents cannot read and do basic math.
Moreover, less than 40 per cent of girls in Sub-Saharan Africa complete lower secondary school and some four million children and youth refugees are out of school.
The figures, he said, were worrying, therefore Vivo Energy Ghana with its partners were pleased to celebrate the day with a special focus on Girls in STEM.
Mr Ouattara said the oil and gas industry was one of the key sectors that heavily depended on STEM.
The operations under this sector required people with STEM background to research, develop innovative products and technological energy solutions for the common good of humanity, he said.
He said STEM education, was therefore of importance to enable the youth to provide cutting-edge business solutions to meet the needs of consumers and contribute to socio-economic development.
Mr Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, the Chairman of ABCDE, said it was necessary for the state to make its educational system more electronic.
“We need to highlight the importance of electronic education and take the e-Campus platform as an opportunity for students to practise subjects online, get better and replicate it in their examination rooms.”
He urged media institutions to redirect focus and pay relevant attention to academic and knowledge-driven programmes for schools with ICT facilities.
Mr Spio-Garbrah recommended that the private sector gets involved in the training of students to fit their requirements whenever they needed employees with special characteristics.
“They must come and help train teachers, educate students and give them support, offer them internship opportunities, then they can be good enough for them,” he added.
Mr Cecil Nutakor, the Chief Executive Officer of eCampus, said digitising production of past questions for students would save schools and parents huge sums of money, as they wouldn’t need to print thousands of books.
“They are books and get weak and torn over time, so if you digitize them, it makes it easier to preserve, and update, unlike a book that you may have to reprint
everything because of a petty mistake.”
He reiterated the need for the country to consider digitizing its educational content to help students and their teachers to identify their strengths and weaknesses to work towards improving them.
He said it would also help schools to effectively plan resources and recruits the right teachers for the right subjects and students to enhance teaching and learning.
GNA
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