Airtel Ghana, one of the country’s telecommunications giants has presented an amount of One Hundred Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢100,000.00) in cash and Twenty Thousand Ghana Cedis (GH¢ 20,000.00) in services as the Lead Sponsor of the 65th edition of the Annual New Year School and Conference held at the University of the Ghana, Legon in Accra.

Managing Director of the company, Mr. Philip Sowah who made the presentation at the opening ceremony of the School said, Airtel was proud to be associated with this year’s event under the theme, ‘‘Information Technology-Driven Education for Sustainable Human Development: Challenges and Prospects’’.

Describing the theme as appropriate, he noted that ‘‘Globalisation and innovations in technology have led to an increased use of information communication technology (ICT) in all sectors of the economy, mostly in developed countries and gradually in developing countries’’.

He said in the 21st century, ICT is heavily influencing every aspect of human life, stressing, ‘‘it has revolutionalised how we do things at the workplace, social settings and education is no exception’’, adding, ‘‘the use of ICT in education is widespread and is continually growing worldwide’’.

He expressed his excitement that the School plans to focus on this all important subject for the next five years saying, this is the platform we need as a country to discuss and formulate policies that can place Ghana on equal pedestal with other developed economies as far as the application of ICT in every facet of our national life is concerned.

He extended Airtel’s fullest support for the event saying, as a company, Airtel Ghana believes that education is the pillar for growth in any society.

‘‘With education empowerment as one of our strongest pillars we use our corporate social responsibility platform to support communities that have educational needs. We have in this view therefore, provided ICT infrastructure for various under-privileged basic schools in Ghana. This is in addition to our mission of extending networks to rural and urban communities, thereby creating greater social intervention and opportunities for economic development’’, Mr Sowah stressed.

The objectives of the School and Conference, among others are to provide the platform for sharing of information and lessons among policy-makers on how to create strong, institutional collaboration to meet the objectives of the ICT4AD National Policy and the ICT in Education Policy.

It is also to explore innovative ways of using distance education to address issues of equity and accessibility and create the environment for lifelong learning through open schooling and open universities for those who may drop out of the educational system.

In the next five-years, beginning with the year 2014, the Annual New Year School and Conference being organised by the Institute of Continuing and Distance Education, ICDE of the University of Ghana will focus on how ICT could be enabled to drive and transform the various sectors of the economy namely: Education, Health, Governance, Agriculture and Business & Commerce.