Panelists of the September edition of EdTech Monday on Citi FM have stressed the need to raise awareness of digital literacy in Ghana to propel the economy and improve the well-being of individuals.
They said, drumming home the need for digital literacy was crucial because people were still unaware of digital literacy and its importance.
Digital literacy is an individual’s ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information using digital media platforms. It is a combination of both technical and cognitive abilities in using information and communication technologies to create, evaluate, and share information.
The panelists included Winnie N.L Dzidonu, Senior Manager for Digital Platforms at MTN; Adwoa Fosua, Executive Director, Women’s Haven Africa and Ama Sackey, Growth Marketing Lead, AXL Ghana.
They were speaking on the theme “Accelerating digital literacy to benefit education systems in Africa”.
Ama Sackey said that although many people were digitally literate, there were still people who were not, so “we have to make a conscious effort to create awareness about digital literacy”.
She said that doing so would change the negative mindsets some people had about others in the digital space and positively impact the economy by raising the employability rate.
Adwoa Fosua opined that digital literacy was a necessity in Ghana’s education space because it was pivotal for its progress.
“Digital literacy now is no longer a luxury, it has actually become a necessity. And we know that digital literacy is actually a fourth literacy and as we speak it has become very necessary to talk about in education. Although we know that reading, writing, mathematics and all that are respected as the basis of being literate. But literacy in this day is not complete if the person is not capable of accessing and creating digital information.”
“If the person is not digitally inclined then literacy is not even complete. We all understand the role education plays in our economy and our nation and we realise that education is one of the important vehicles that drive economic development and even human welfare of a nation. And therefore it is very important to know that our educational system is changing…Now we realise that digital literacy is not just merely a skill, it is a cornerstone for educational progress in Ghana.”
Winnie N.L. Dzidonu underscored that educating and sensitising people would also help solve some challenges being faced by the educational sector and bridge the gap the as well particularly for persons in the rural areas.
She stated that it would improve access to education and ignite a love for entrepreneurship among people.
EdTech Mondays is an initiative of the Mastercard Foundation’s Regional Centre for Innovative Teaching and Learning in ICT, aimed at finding 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.
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.
