EduWatch petitions AG to audit free Wi-fi programme in SHS/CoE
Africa Education Watch (EduWatch) has submitted a request to the Auditor-General to audit the free Wi-fi programme in various government Senior High Schools, Senior High/Technical Schools and Colleges of Education in the country.
The request for an audit comes after EduWatch’s survey on the free Wi-fi programme disclosed the Wi-fi system of about 78 per cent of the public 138 Senior High Schools (SHS) that responded to the survey malfunctions.
“A performance audit must be commissioned by the Auditor-General into the free Wi-Fi programme to ascertain its full-scale efficiency and advise accordingly,” the Education Policy Research Organization stated in its request.
In a social media post sighted by AcademicWeek, the Director of the Watch said ”the 5-year contract was valued at about GH¢462 million i.e. GH¢84 million for installation; GH¢6.3 million monthly internet subscription fee for 5 years.”
Meanwhile, the Minister for Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum citing the high cost of free Wi-fi in tertiary education institutions has said teacher trainees in government Colleges of Education will bear the cost for the internet services.
The Education Minister in a purported statement to Busy Internet Service provider and sighted by AcademicWeek.com said the cost of the Colleges of Education wifi service has overburdened the budget of the Free Senior High School (Free SHS).
“Upon a review of the contract for the provision of internet services to pre-tertiary schools, we noticed that Colleges of Education were also benefitting from the facility and this is overburdening the funding of free SHS,” Adutwum stated.
According to the Minister for Education, the payment of the wifi internet service provided by Busy Internet is borne by Free Senior High School which he has said is not run from the Jubilee House but the Free SHS secretarial headed by him.
“Busy will be instructed to start billing the Colleges of Education directly for the usage of the internet service. The original cost of GH¢6,824,000 paid for the 46 public Colleges will be shared for them to pay,” he said in the statement.
