Some education stakeholders are advocating for both traditional and online educational methods.
They are of the opinion that a hybrid mode will guarantee pupil inclusion at all levels of education in the nation.
Panellists who participated in the February 2023 episode of Edtech Monday on Citi Breakfast Show strongly argued in favour of the hybrid choice as an effort to close the equity gap in access to education.
“The hybrid model is a viable option for children once they are able to access. When COVID-19 had an impact on the education system, the hybrid mode was an easy access for learning”, said Aba Brandful Ankrah, Head of Pre-school, Vine Christain School.
The discussion centered on ‘Leveraging Technology to Advance Education and Learning: Mainstreaming Hybrid Model of Learning.”
For the chief operations officer at TECHAiDE, children of school age can continue to miss out on contact hours even though technology can be used to improve educational outcomes.
“Technology is integrated into whatever we do and if it is not fully integrated into education then the kids will lose out. We need to start doing hybrid.”
Hilda Barasa, Africa Policy Lead. Tony Blair Institute for Global Change made the data argument suggesting that the situation must be improved.
“If you look at the statistics in Ghana and level of educational attainment, you have about 70 percent of children at the primary level completing education but as they progress to JHS and SHS, the statistics become more shocking as they begin to drop significantly. So, a hybrid model will help bridge this gap,” she said.
EdTech Monday is an initiative of the Mastercard Foundation’s Regional Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT and part of the Foundation’s strategy to find solutions to Africa’s youth employment by closing the gap in access to quality education and advancing the integration of technology in education policies and practices across Africa.
To realise this vision in Ghana, the Mastercard Foundation has partnered with MEST Africa, a pan-African technology institution to bring EdTech Monday, on the last Monday of every month.
About MEST
MEST offers Africa-wide technology entrepreneur training, internal seed funding, and a network of hubs providing incubation for technology startups in Africa.
Founded in Ghana in 2008, MEST provides critical skills training, funding, and support in software development, business, and communications to Africa’s tech entrepreneurs. Hubs are located in Accra, Ghana; Lagos, Nigeria; Cape Town, South Africa; and Nairobi, Kenya.
To date, MEST has trained over 500 entrepreneurs from across the continent and invested in over 80 startups across industries from SaaS and consumer internet, to eCommerce, Digital Media, Agritech, Fintech and Healthcare IT.
MEST is primarily funded by the Meltwater Foundation, the non-profit arm of Meltwater, a global leader in media intelligence and Outside Insight.
