Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, the Minister of Education, says Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Information Communication and Technology (ICT) must play a pivotal role in transforming education by providing personalised learning experiences tailored to individual student needs.
He said AI platforms allowed students to receive customised lessons, practice materials and feedback, enhancing their understanding of subjects at their own pace.
The Minister of Education was speaking at a conference on “AI, ICT, and the Future of Education in Ghana 2024” organised by the Korea’s Yonsei University in Accra.
Dr Adutwum said ICT tools, such as interactive whiteboards and online collaboration platforms, facilitated engaging and dynamic classroom experiences to enhance the development of 21st century skills such as creativity, problem-solving, innovation, and collaboration.
He said contemporary education must integrate digital technologies, automation, data exchange, advanced analytics into various industries, transforming how they operated, produced and delivered products and services.
He noted that in Ghanaian universities, AI was increasingly being integrated into academic curricula to prepare students for the demands of the digital age while aiding research endeavours by automating data analysis, accelerating the discovery process, and contributing to advancements in various fields.
In addition, he said, AI-driven educational tools enhanced the learning experience, providing personalised content, interactive simulations, and adaptive assessments to students.
According to the Education Minister, the state of the art in Ghana indicated that collaborations with Industry partners and government initiatives are fostering the development of AI expertise among students, contributing to the growth of Ghana’s technology sector in areas such as electricity transmission and distribution.
Furthermore, he noted that ICT in Ghanaian universities was instrumental in modernizing educational practices, offering students and faculty access to a wealth of digital resources.
Dr Adutwum said AI and ICT had revolutionized education at all levels by empowering students with interactive learning experiences, global resources, and practical skills relevant to the modern world.
“As technology continues to evolve, the role of AI and ICT in education will remain central to preparing students for the challenges and opportunities of the future,” he said.
Among others, Dr Adutwum said the NPP Government had prioritized AI and ICT by introducing interventions to ensure that students met the future standards of professional practice through education with the supply of 280,000 laptops for teachers, 450,000 tablets, in the 1-Tablet-1-Student policy, be distributed soon.
Professor JangSaeng Kim, Professor, College of Humanities, Yonsei University, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the Korean government, for many years, focused on human development which had propelled it in many different spheres.
Countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, he said, had been left behind technologically but “ICT and AI are the new ladder to jump up. It is time for Ghana to jump up too.”
Prof Kim, also a researcher at the Institute for Poverty Alleviation and International Development, said AI and ICT could be applied in different sectors, including the building of the economy, improving agriculture and advancing the health sector.
Prof Jerry John Kponyo, Principal Investigator and Scientific Director, Responsible AI Lab at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, said technology should be designed to avoid bias, discrimination, and disparities in impact, and should be accessible and beneficial to diverse groups of people.
He said responsible deployment of AI required that mechanisms were put in place to hold developers and users accountable for any harmful or unethical deployment of technology.
“AI solutions must be responsible. Responsible AI is about people-centred AI, putting the human being at the centre of AI deployment,” Prof Kponyo said.
He said introducing AI to the education sector could transform the educational regime and that there was a need to make students AI literate and improve AI-base problem-solving skills in major fields, including the health sector.
Prof Kponyo, also the Dean of Quality Assurance and Planning at the KNUST, said, “Disparity must be overcome and equal across must be ensured. Make sure that there’s no bias in data. Data inaccuracy is a serious problem, but verification may be required,”
GNA