Israel’s Ambassador to Ghana, Shlamit Sufa, has urged Ghanaian institutions to explore the solutions available in the Israeli educational technology (Ed-tech) space to boost the country’s education sector.
She said there are 339 Ed-tech companies in Israel, 50 percent of which are startups with about $150 million invested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), test and text archiving, student engagement and project management.
Speaking at the Israel Ed-tech Breakfast in Accra yesterday, Ms Sufa said there are many promising opportunities for partnership between the Israeli and Ghanaian Ed-tech industries.
The campaign, led by the Embassy’s Trade and Economic Mission, aims to create synergies between the EdTech sectors of Ghana and Israel to help achieve the national Information and Communication Technology (ICT) priorities in education policy.
In this regard, the meeting, attended by representatives from the Ghana Education Service, higher education institutions and technology companies, served as a platform for Israeli EdTech companies to showcase their expertise to potential Ghanaian partners.
Ms. Sufa said the partnership will help Ghana especially as Ghana’s ICT education policy highlights seven priority areas including education management, capacity building, e-readiness infrastructure, content development and inclusion of ICT in curricula.
“Through this initiative, we believe that innovative solutions can be developed or explored to meet these needs in Ghana’s growing education sector, whether at the primary or tertiary level,” she said.
According to Ms. Sufa, the education sector has been one of her country’s priority sectors in developing a partnership with Ghana, thus since the re-opening of the Israeli Embassy in Ghana in 2011, she has been working with Ghanaian stakeholders to share knowledge to enhance the sector.
She said that apart from the Ed-Tech campaign, the embassy has launched a program called ‘Education for Digital Innovation’ under which it has commissioned three fully equipped ICT classrooms for some selected high schools.
“This initiative was based on our desire to join the Ghanaian government’s commitment to digitization and innovation not only in the economy but also in the education sector,” said Ms Sufa.
Ms. Bracha Rapaport, head of the Ed-tech sector at the Israel Export Institute, said that the inclusion of IT in education has become necessary because students are losing interest in the traditional way of learning.
She said the sector therefore required an infusion of IT to encourage innovation and continuous engagement and facilitate teaching and learning for both teachers and students.
The Director of e-Learning at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Professor Eric Apaw-Asante, said Ghana is making progress in the use of IT in the education sector but has a long way to go.
He therefore advised stakeholders in the education sector to identify the gaps and take advantage of the opportunities in the technology space to make Ghana’s education sector resilient.