Country Director of British Council Ghana and Cameroon, Chikodi Onyemerela, has said the Skill4Sucess programme, launched in 2021 by his outfit in partnership with Wikimedia Foundation and the Ghana Tertiary Education Commission (GTEC) to improve digital literacy, media and Information Literacy (MIL) and factual writing skills among students will start training in August 2022.
He said though the programme is at its formative stage, development of the necessary materials is expected to conclude in July, and then training would start in August 2022.
“We are still at the formative stage of the programme; today was a writing workshop. That is, writing the media and information literacy module as well as the factual module. Today’s workshop is to be sure that it is probably contextualised in the Ghanaian educational context and for the beneficiaries to see how suitable the two modules will be in classroom situation.
“We expect that the material development will be concluded in July and as soon as it is concluded and stakeholders endorse it, we will begin the training most likely in August,” he said.
He made this known at the materials writing workshop for the programme by UK experts and Ghanaian facilitators in Accra.
Skills4Success is a material development and teacher training programme that is to be tested and delivered in Ghana and to be extended to Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa in the future. The overall objective of the project is to contribute toward higher academic performance and greater employability of young people in these countries.
It will provide pre-service teacher trainers, i.e., lecturers from colleges of education and universities, and teachers with the knowledge and skills to develop improved digital literacy and factual writing skills in the young learners they teach.
These skills will be delivered to learners as part of day-to-day lessons, working to help learners become more familiar with online media and resources, how to navigate misinformation, and to engage and have an active voice in the digital space.
The British Council and its partners believe an improved factual writing skills will further support young learners in their ability to make written contributions online, in addition to supporting their communication skills within further education and the workplace.
Speaking to the media at the event, Senior Partnerships Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa at Wikimedia Foundation, Rudolph Ampofo, reiterated the need to support teachers in utilising open-access teaching and learning materials.
He said with what the pandemic has taught the world, it is imperative to inculcate digital literacy in education modules.
Mr. Ampofo added that in the wake of misinformation and disinformation, it is important that people put out knowledge that is rooted in fact, a more reason Wikimedia is a partner to the programme to help on how to leverage open educational resources.
Lecturer at the University of Education Winneba, Dr. Samuel Oppong-Frimpong, said being given the opportunity to view and peruse the materials and modules, he is confident the programme will be of great help to young learners and even to the teachers who will be engaged.
