Education Minister, Dr Yaw Osei Adutwum, has said he will welcome calls for an audit of the government’s free wifi for Senior High schools (SHS) nationwide.
According to him, the policy has been nothing short of transparency and will have no reason to be afraid if the need for an audit arises.
The Minister who doubles as Bosomtwe Member of Parliament (MP), was speaking in an interview on Adom FM Dwaso Nsem.
“I’m ready for the audit. There is nothing to be afraid of because my operation is an open book,” he said.
An advocacy organisation, Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch), has charged the Auditor-General to commission a full-scale performance audit of the free Wifi programme in senior high schools to ascertain efficiency.
Eduwatch has suggested the audit should be carried out to advise the Ministry of Education accordingly.
It said the Ministry of Education must also strengthen the system for verifying the quality of service provided by the service providers based on which payments are made.
A May-June 2023 rapid survey of 150 SHSs with a response rate of 92 per cent (138) SHSs revealed that about 78 per cent of SHSs did not have functioning Wi-Fi and that “only 22 per cent of SHSs had functioning Wi-Fi”.
But Dr Adutwum has admitted the policy has been fraught with challenges and was quick to add that the Ministry was on top of issues.
“The challenge has been delayed payment, due to which some of the providers disconnected the internet, but now we have engaged the providers to offer a stable service.
“We don’t pay when they disconnect, so there is no place for anybody to get monies they haven’t earned not under me. There are records to show the connectivity dates and the IT coordinators have them too,” he explained.
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