A concern has erupted in the government’s flagship digital learning initiative after the Education Minister revealed that students are using state-issued tablets to access pornography.
In response, leading education policy think tank Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has issued an urgent directive: the Ghana Education Service (GES) must immediately retrieve the devices from all Senior High School (SHS) students to install robust safety controls.
The explosive demand was made following comments by Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu in Parliament on Thursday, which confirmed that the tablets—intended to support academic studies—were being heavily misused for inappropriate content.
The government had aimed to distribute approximately 83,000 tablets nationwide to boost digital literacy in secondary schools.
The Retrieval Mandate
Eduwatch argues that the failure to equip the devices with proper UNESCO-approved safety features and firewalls from the start has turned a positive educational tool into a dangerous liability.
The organisation stressed that quick retrieval is necessary to shield students from harmful content and restore the tablets’ educational purpose.
Kofi Nkansah Sarkodie, Project Management Specialist at Eduwatch, called for decisive, centralised action from the GES:
“Those tablets have already been procured and distributed. We recommend that GES retrieve them and ensure that the safety measures are fully implemented.”
Sarkodie provided a clear, scalable solution for the immediate crisis:
“Retrieval can be done at the school level, and the necessary safeguards must be deployed. The devices are intended for academic purposes only, to support students’ learning, and not for any other activity.”
Securing the Digital Classroom
Eduwatch emphasised that the technological intervention must be rigorous, focusing on protecting vulnerable minors.
This involves installing robust Mobile Device Management (MDM) software, which allows central administrators to control the applications, block inappropriate websites, and monitor usage in compliance with child online protection policies.
The think tank stressed that retrieving and reconfiguring the tablets is essential to protect students from inappropriate content and to ensure the devices fulfil their intended educational function, thereby saving the multi-million Ghana cedi investment in the hardware.
The GES now faces immense pressure to execute a complex nationwide recall operation to re-secure the thousands of devices, ensuring that the intended digital revolution in Ghanaian schools does not become a major public safety scandal. Myjoyonline
