The Minister for Education Designate, Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum says bridging the digital divide in a bid to enhance education will be one of his priorities if he is given the nod as Minister.

According to him, the advent of COVID-19 and the need for virtual education is an opportunity that government must harness to improve the sector.

Dr Adutwum was speaking in Parliament when he contributed to a statement to mark the international day of education.

“The pandemic serves as a lesson to all of us. When we talk about the disparities we see in education, the fact that Zoom is not available in our public school circles and families whose children go to public schools, we must not lose sight of the fact this happening because of the digital divide that we find ourselves confronted with in this country,” Dr. Adutwum said.

Between March 2020 and January 2021, Ghanaian school kids were among the 1.2 billion children worldwide physically out of school.

Basic school students from Kindergarten to Junior High School (JHS) only resumed their classroom activities from January 15.

Continuing Senior High School students went back to school from January 18, 2021.

First-year SHS students are expected to begin school on March 10, 2021.

A household survey on ICT by the Ghana Statistical Survey noted that there is still 46.8 percent of persons without mobile phones in urban areas.

The survey further revealed that only 7.9 percent of Ghanaians owned functional computers; laptop computers, desktop computers or tablets.