The District Chief Executive of Biakoye has said the Yamoransa Model Labs initiative by the Helping Africa Foundation (HAF) and Friend of Yamoransa (FYF) are part of educational reforms to enhance effective teaching and learning in the area of Technology.

Comfort Akua Attah said technology has made the world a global village and the Yamoransa Model Lab in the Biakoye District was the one of its kind in the Oti Region to drive home that awareness.

 The DCE made the revelation at the inauguration of the Yamoransa Model Lab 7 at Nkonya Ahenkro in the Oti Region.

She said many schools presently in Ghana were yet to be furnished with ICT Laboratories, although it was being taught as a core subject.

Comfort Akua Attah said the project was timely to enhance the knowledge and skills of the pupils and students in the District and thus embraced it wholeheartedly. 

She urged the youth of the beneficiary communities to take advantage of the ICT Lab to change their mindsets about Information Technology which has been a preserve of some portions of our society.

She added that it was her dream to see a majority of the girls taking the initiative very seriously to cut down the teenage pregnancy menace in the District that has always prohibited the girl child to climb the educational ladder and progressing to the top. 

Executive Director of HAF, Japhet Aryiku,  said it was important to emphasize that education was the bedrock of every country's human resource, especially girl child education.

He, therefore, cautioned girls in the area not to engage in premarital sex that promotes teenage pregnancy and school dropouts.

Mr Ayiku said the HAF and FYF were committed to promoting ICT education which was the order of the day.

He said the mission of his NGO was working to improve the education, health, and social conditions in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Ghana, aimed at supporting and assisting initiatives that are driven by technology for local communities.

 Mr Ayiku recounted how the Minister of Communication, Mrs Ursula Owusu-Ekuful influenced the siting of the Yamoransa Model Lab 7 in the Oti Region and commended her for the hard work she was doing.

President of HAF, Dr Deborah Rose, said the work of her outfit was complementing the government efforts to expand and promote ICT education in Ghana.

She expressed the hope that the Yamoransa Model Lab 7 will promote effective teaching and learning in the area to upgrade the students' knowledge in ICT education.    

The Biakoye District Education Director, Roselyn Kafui Ofori said the selfless contribution of the HAF and FYF was the greatest asset any society could have and was it deserves commendation and praise.

She said the facility will make the students technology-savvy and keep them abreast with the techniques that teach not ICT as a subject but also, the integration of ICT skills for learning other subjects.

 Mrs Ofori assured the HAF and FYF that the education directorate will put the facility to good use to achieve the desired impact.

The Chief Executive Officer of TECHAiDE, Mr Kafui Prebbie, charged the facility management committee to effectively maintain the lab and give the children the opportunity to use it without any restrictions. 

Paramount Chief of Nkonya Traditional Area and Chairman of the ceremony, Nanai Okotor Kwame Tegyi II said, with ICT driving the world today, another great window of opportunity has been opened for both children and teachers to improve upon teaching and learning and thanked the HAF and FYF for the gesture.

The Yamoransa Model Lab 7 facility is well equipped with a 50-seater computer lab to provide free ICT literacy as well as a conference room for teacher training and workshops.

It has a MakerSpace specially designed by TECHAiDE, a technology company to help prepare Ghanaian students who need the critical 21st-century skills in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). TECHAiDE installed all the technology systems.

The MakerSpace installed as part of the facility includes a 3D printer, Augmented/Virtual Reality System, Arduino, Legos, and other Robotics equipment.

The computers are installed with over 30 pieces of educational software to address the curriculum requirements of Primary through Junior High School levels.

An ASANKA device at the facility provides educational content over wi-fi for the centre over a distance of half a football field around the facility.

Because of the lack of reliable electricity in many villages, the facility fully runs on solar energy to provide continuous power as part of the package.