Mr Ebenezer Kojo Otoo, the 2021 Most Outstanding Teacher, has urged post-graduate students, educational think tanks and the citizenry to play their respective roles to transform education in Ghana.
He said the current educational system where professionals and statesmen had become timid to voice out ideas that could help the nation must be discarded.
Mr Otoo said this in an interview with the Ghana News Agency at the Sixth International Multi-Disciplinary Conference for Post-Graduate Students at Winneba in the Central Region.
The event was organised by the University of Education, Winneba Chapter of the Graduate Students’ Association of Ghana (GRASAG).
It was on the theme: “Change and Digital Transformation in the New Normal; The Role of Post Graduate Students.”
Mr Otoo said that society must be empowered with authentic education to engender a brighter future and safer environment.
He said post-graduate students provided technical support to education that helped in the socio-economic transformation of the country.
He indicated that educational systems around the world were leveraging the growing climate of innovation and creativity while keeping up with the change in the new normal society.
“Advancing changes in digital transformation in current times, particularly in countries with growing youth populations, will encourage global connectivity and responsible citizenship, develop human capacity and support their transition into a knowledge-based economy,” he noted.
Contemporary education had been transformed from a teacher-centred approach to a learner-centred one, and that innovative digital applications in the sector had gained importance to support learners and lecturers with the needed transformation, Mr Otoo said.
There was, therefore, the need for post-graduate students to adopt the 21st-century skills of problem solving, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking to facilitate national growth, he said.
“Studies show that in this information age society, Information and Communication Technology can help increase engagement, motivation and attendance in any sphere of production and service rendering so all must be ICT inclined to facilitate their work,” he said.
Mr Otoo said every nation expected its post-graduates to introduce the magic that would increase productivity and creativity in the work environment.
“Let’s embrace suggestions and criticism without political linkage to fix our education,” he said.
