After more than a few false starts EDUnet, the flag ship information system of the Ghana Education Decentralization Project, officially “launched” on December 20th, 2011. Officials from the Ministry of Education, the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) spoke hopefully about the transition from the current system based on paper forms, snail mail and sneaker net to a more digital approach to managing the GES.
Deputy Minister of Education, Mr Mahama Ayariga makes it official.
The various WUSCovites on the GEDP project team witnessed with great relief that the planned live demos went off without mishap, including the Deputy Minister’s Skype video call to a human resources official in one of the GES district offices.
Mr. Atta-Williams summarizes as Deputy Minister participates in Skype video conference.
Members of the Ghana news media were in good attendance and we even managed to make the evening news.
Ghana news crew joined by GEDP Communications Officer Kofi Asare capture some of the action.
The excitement of having this important project milestone behind us is tempered by a remark of one of the speakers that Ghana needed to foster a greater “culture of maintenance” to ensure that the system would continue to deliver on its promises going forward.” The problem of sustainability of international development is one of the key teaching points in our pre-trip orientation. Perhaps we can take heart from the fact that it is was singled out as a key issue on the big day.
More pictures from the EDUnet Launch are here.