Ghana and Israel explore partnership in digital education
Ms Shlomit Sufa, the Israeli Ambassador to Ghana, says the partnership between the Israeli and Ghanaian Education Technology (EdTech) will help develop innovative solutions to meet the needs of educational institutions.
Ms Sufa said this in Accra at a breakfast meeting of the Israel EdTech Campaign to create a synergy between the two countries on emerging technologies in education, organised by the Trade and Economic Mission of the Embassy of Israel.
She said since the reopening of the Embassy in 2011, Israel and Ghana had been working together in collaboration with stakeholders to share knowledge in the education sector for sustained development.
“We are delighted for our Trade and Economic Mission to take this priority a step further by introducing Israeli EdTech Solutions to Ghana’s growing educational sector from the primary to tertiary level,” he said.
The Ambassador said the Embassy had launched its Education for Digital Innovation project and commissioned three fully furnished ICT classrooms for some selected Senior High Schools.
The initiative, she stated, was to align with Ghana’s drive to the digitization and innovation agenda in the education and other sectors.
She said Israel currently had 339 EdTech companies, out of which 50 per cent were setups with approximately $ 150 million investments, adding that the main verticals in the Israeli EdTech ecosystem included STEM, test, text and archiving, student engagement, and programme management.
“In the student engagement field, companies such as Safeschool were creating an empowering environment for children and teenagers in schools, at home and in social networks.
“In STEM, Israeli innovation is leading the way with interesting solutions through gamification such as Codemonkey,” she said.
She said Israel companies were contributing significantly to the shift from traditional passive learning to more interactive, digitised and creative approaches to learning and training.
Dr Samuel Asiedu Owusu, Senior Research Fellow, Director, Research, Innovation and Consultancy, University of Cape Coast, said there was no alternative to embrace technology in the education space.
He said the University had a good collaboration with the Israeli Embassy in integrating technology into its educational system and called on other universities to embrace the digital space.
Mr Ebenezer Kow Amuasi, Director, International Affairs, Wisconsin International University College, Ghana, said their outfit would collaborate with the Israeli companies to help monitor and assess their international students who absented themselves from lectures.
Source: GNA