Economies around the world have been hard hit by the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, although majority of them are experiencing a gradual restoration. 

The educational sector, especially in Africa, is among those adversely affected by COVID-19. 

Many educational institutions around the world have had to re-strategise pedagogical approaches for effective and efficient teaching and learning. 

Majority of private tertiary educational institutions in developing countries have had to invest greatly, in terms of technological advancements, to stay afloat in the business of education.  

The Garden City University College (GCUC) held its 13th Graduation Ceremony during which 676 students graduated from various disciplines, with predominantly females graduating on top of their classes. 

The 2021 graduation was themed: “Post COVID-19 and the Educational Enterprise: Innovative Strategies to stay in business”.

The Special Guest for the occasion, Dinah Kaleo-Bioh, during her address observed that private educational institutions in Ghana have had the strongest blow of the pandemic.

“As essential as education is in the lives of humanity, during the lockdown, schools all around the world were shut down; and the worst affected were private schools at all levels. 

“The business of education or educational enterprise is becoming more costly to run because of all the challenges that have emanated from the Covid pandemic. 

“Schools have been forced to invest more in IT infrastructure to stay on top of issues. Training programmes have had to be run at high cost for staff to be abreast with these new technologies.,” said Dinah Kaleo-Bioh. 

Mrs. Kaleo-Bioh is however urging private institutions in the country to adopt technological strategies including equipping their staff with IT skills for teaching. 

She believes these new, diverse strategies would help attract prospective patrons of their services. 

“Technology is at the core of strategies to deliver services in this era. By this, all staff must be tech savvy. Staff must be trained to acquire adequate skills to operate within the technological environment and must have a warm attitude especially toward the students

“The need to strategize not just to stay afloat, but to be resilient and sustainable irrespective of the storms in the business environment cannot be overemphasized,” she said. 

President of the GCUC, Prof. Edward Kwame Asante, noted that the University is investing more in technological resources to support its teaching and learning. 

“When COVID-19 struck and disrupted learning, we managed to adapt fast to the use of technology. The trends for the delivery of teaching and learning in higher education institutions will continue to shift towards the use of technology. 

“As a University College, we have made a firm decision to invest more resources in technology to support teaching and learning. We have embarked on preparing lecturers and students for asynchronous learning,” he said.