Greater technology adoption in Ghana’s education system is needed, say participants at the country’s just-ended 65th Annual New Year School and Conference.

Participants have urged Ghana’s ministry of education to strengthen information and communications technology (ICT) education in the curricula of colleges of education and other training institutions in the country.

They also called on government agencies to intensify awareness creation on the importance of ICT in national development.

These were among recommendations contained in a 12-point communiqué issued at the end of the programme organised at the University of Ghana, in Accra.

The Institute of Continuing and Distance Education (ICDE) of the University of Ghana organised the week-long conference under the theme, ‘Information and Communication Technology-Driven Education for Sustainable Human Development: Challenges and Prospects’.

The communiqué further called for an even distribution and coverage of ICT in the country, adding that the ministry of information should roll out a nationwide outreach through mobile computer laboratory and training to less endowed communities.

“In addition to the provision of computer laboratories, maintenance shops should be established in every district to ensure proper maintenance of ICT equipment,” the communiqué read.

It further stressed the need for all metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies to be provided with e-learning centres to serve adults and out-of-school youth.

Speaking at the closing ceremony, the Director of ICDE, Prof. Yaw Oheneba-Sakyi, said a five-year thematic plan had been instituted to ensure that Ghana’s vision of the ICT Accelerated Development (ICTAD) policy was achieved.

He said the institute would focus on ICT and national development in the educational sector for the next five years, beginning from 2014.

“Specifically, the spotlight of the annual new year school and conference up to 2019 would be on how ICT could be enabled to drive and transform the other key sectors of the national economy,” he said.

This year’s conference provided a platform for a cross section of Ghanaians to contribute to the national dialogue on the role of ICT in modernising the country’s educational system at all levels to uncover the knowledge, skills and creativity of its human resources.