For the past 2 months or so, some senior high schools connected to enjoy the government’s free Wi-Fi have been unable to connect to the web. This is because the internet connections have been down for the past two months or so.
This came to light when the Upper East Regional Chairman of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools (CHASS), Richard Akumbasi spoke on the Day Break Upper East Show today, Monday, September 12, 2022.
It would be recalled that the NPP promised to “collaborate with the private sector to provide free WiFi coverage to senior secondary schools and tertiary institutions” ahead of the 2022 general election.
Parts of the manifesto also said, “contracts [have been] awarded to provide free Wi-Fi connectivity to all 722 SHSs, 46 Colleges of Education (CoEs), 16 Regional Offices, and 260 District Education Offices.”
While the systems have been connected, not all are currently functional.
“They [government] were able to connect almost all the schools. District and Regional Education offices were also connected to the Wi-Fi and it was working very well but now we have some challenges. It appears the system has broken down,” he said.
Busy Internet, the internet service provider for some of the schools in the Upper East Region has been unable to supply constant internet to the facilities hooked to their system.
“In my case, I got the connectivity earlier. I think I was part of the earlier piloted schools before the rest joined but now we have some challenges. For my school and other schools in the region, we are connected by busy internet. They are the service providers. We contacted them and they said they have challenges which is why it is down.”
“They will tell you that when they are able to resolve the issues, then you will be connected back. That is the response you will get. That is the challenge now. It is about 2 months or even more,” he said.
Mr. Akumbasi’s position was reiterated by the National Association of Graduate Teachers’ (NAGRAT’s) Upper East Regional Chairman, John Akunzebe.
He said, “there’s one thing providing those facilities and there’s another thing ensuring that they work. Are they working? They are not. You have provided them but are they working? They are not. Also, not all schools have been provided.”
“If you go to the Regional Education office, I can tell you that the Wi-Fi there is not working properly. It can be on for one week and off for one month. Is that how we want it to work? How will we go forward?”
Source: A1radioonline.com|101.1MHz|Mark Kwasi Ahumah Smith|Ghana
