Mrs Gifty Twum Ampofo, a Deputy Minister for Education in charge of Technical/Vocational Education Training (TVET) has urged parents and guardians to support their children and wards to utilize digital devices like smartphones for literacy purposes.
She noted digital learning tools helped to sharpen critical thinking skills which were the basis for the growth of systematic reasoning and thus encouraged parents and guardians to expose their children and wards to the effective use of computers and smartphones.
Mrs Ampofo was speaking at a durbar to mark the Bono East Regional celebration of the 55th International Literacy Day at Techiman in the region.
It was under the theme “Complementary Education for Human Development in COVID-19 Era: The Role of Digital Literacy”.
She said UNESCO’s International Literacy Day was part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals adopted in 2015 to highlight the changes and improvements being made worldwide in literacy development.
Accordingly, Mrs Ampofo said the Non-Formal Education Division (NFED) of the Ministry of Education had been making efforts to transform from their traditional mandate into the Complementary Education Agency to affect the lives of many.
Mr Francis Asumadu, the national Director of NFED said it would soon be transforming into a new Agency to enhance functional literacy and facilitate among others remedial education for school drop-outs.
Mr Nicholas Ameyaw the Bono, Bono East, and Ahafo Regions’ Director for NFED highlighted the successes chalked by the Division in the regions since its inception, saying the NFED had made huge strides in complementing the role of Ghana Education Service, despite the operational challenges.
He, therefore, encouraged school drop-outs to take advantage of the NFED’s free remedial classes to enable them to progress on the academic ladder to eventually become trained professionals and responsible citizens to contribute meaningfully to the progress of the communities and the country generally.