Legon PRESEC, St. Augustine’s College among Senior High Schools without functioning govt free Wi-Fi – Eduwatch report

The Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has released a report on a rapid efficiency analysis of the Free Wi-Fi Programme undertaken by government in Ghana’s Second Cycle Schools.

In the report published on the website of Eduwatch, it has disclosed that its research uncovered 107 of 138 schools sampled do not have a functioning Wi-Fi.

Among the Senior High Schools are top schools such as Legon Presby Boys SHS, Bishop Herman College, St. John’s Grammar, as well as St. Augustine’s College are all not without functioning Wi-Fi in their schools.

“The responses as presented in Figure 1, indicate about 78 per cent of the 138 SHS that responded did not have functioning Wi-Fi. The schools include St. Augustine’s College, Presby Boys SHS - Legon, Bishop Herman College, St. John’s Grammar SHS, Ejisu Senior High Technical School (SHTS), Bekwai SHS, Bolgatanga Technical Institute, Akatsi SHTS, Wa SHS, and Ola SHS, among others,” parts of the report from Eduwatch said.

Meanwhile, Eduwatch found out in the research that 22 percent of the schools representing 31 schools have functioning WiFi that is accessible.

The schools include Bongo SHS, Krachi SHS, Akuse Methodist SHTS, Akrofuom SHTS, Amenfiman SHS, Manya Krobo SHS, Kurofa Methodist SHS, Odupong SHS, J. E. A Mills SHS, and St. Mary's Seminary SHS.

Further probe by Eduwatch uncovered that the schools with functioning Wi-Fi had challenges with coverage as many Wi-Fi signals were only accessible at the administrative and ICT departments, excluding classrooms.

This meant, teachers, while teaching, could not access the Wi-Fi.

As part of its recommendations, the Eduwatch report proposed that efforts must be made to extend Wi-Fi coverage to classrooms.

The report also calls for a performance audit of the free WiFi programme by the Auditor-General to ascertain its full-scale efficiency.