Samsung Electronics launches first Solar Powered Internet School in Ghana
DEVELOPMENT
| Aug. 12, 2014, 2:23 p.m.
By Nana Appiah Acquaye, Accra, Ghana
With a click of a bottom school-going children in the deprived community of Dago in the Akuapem South District of Ghana’s Eastern Region will be connected to the rest of the world in search of information. This is thanks to Samsung Electronics Company Limited and the Korean Education and Research Information Services, in collaboration with the government of Ghana through the Ministry of Education, who have provided the district with a Solar Powered Internet School.
Samsung’s Solar-Powered Internet Schools Initiative forms part of Samsung’s Citizenship program and it will bring mobile classrooms filled with gadgets to rural towns.
By outfitting a 40FT mobile shipping container with desks, a 65-inch electronic board, Internet-enabled solar-powered notebooks, Samsung Galaxy tablet computers and Wi-Fi cameras, children can receive a technology-rich education without travelling far. All these devices are optimised for use in a solar powered environment. It also has a central server which stores the curriculum up to grade 12 for teachers and students to access and discuss. The e-board allows for cross-group collaboration across geographical boundaries. Its can concurrently run video conferencing, access the internet, and connect to the tablet computers in the container.
Speaking at the official launch of the facility, the Managing Director in charge of Samsung West Africa, Mr. Harry Park, stated that the project is replicated in some other African countries by Samsung to help promote education in deprived communities. He then called on the government and corporate Ghana to assist in the provision of such facilities across the country.
The Minister in charge of education in Ghana, Prof. Naana Jane Opoku Agyemang, expressed her heartfelt appreciation to the government of the Republic of Korea and to Samsung Electronics for the honour done Ghana through the donation of a Solar-Powered Internet School.
She noted that the government of Ghana has committed itself to transforming the Ghanaian economy into an information rich and knowledge based economy and society using the tools of ICT. “ In this regard, a comprehensive program of rapid deployment and utilisation of ICT was introduced into the educational and other sectors, with the aim of improving lives through finding answers to the many questions relating to health care, education, infrastructure, and social amenities etc which confront us as a people,” he added.
