E-TOYS AND MORE SETS UP E-LEARNING CENTRE ....At Odumase in Sunyani West (PAGE 11, OCT 25, 2010)

AN e-learning centre valued at GH¢70,000 and equipped with the modern multimedia branded computers loaded with powerful educational software has been inaugurated at Odumase in the Sunyani West District of the Brong Ahafo Region.
The centre, set up by e-toys & more, was initiated by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Sunyani West, Mr Ignatius Baffour Awuah, and funded through his share of the Ghana Education Trust Fund (GETFund) with support from the District Assemblies Common Fund.
The centre, which is located on the compound of the Odumase St Peter and St Paul Junior High School (JHS), will serve about 3,000 students in the Odumase community.
Speaking at the inauguration, Mr Awuah said he established the centre to help bridge the digital gap for pupils and students in his constituency and bring them at par with their counterparts elsewhere.
Apart from helping to bridge the digital gap, he said it was also to help inculcate Information and Communications Technology (ICT) studies in the children, since it had now become an examinable subject at the basic level of education.
“I am delighted that finally the schoolchildren in my constituency can also benefit from the great technological revolution taking place around the world, especially educational technology,” he stated.
Mr Awuah indicated that plans were underway to replicate the e-learning centre in other communities in the constituency.
The Brong Ahafo Regional Director of Education, Rev. S.A. Amankwah, for his part, commended the MP for his initiative to promote quality education in the constituency and appealed to him to replicate the centre in Chiraa, Fiapre and Nsoatre, the other major towns in the constituency, for pupils and students there to benefit from it.
Mr George Sackey Jnr, the Executive President of e-toys, for his part, said education was becoming completely technology-driven throughout the world, with modern forms of delivery being employed to replace traditional ones.
He said it was the mission of his company to provide technological solutions for the educational needs of children, schools and communities to help bridge the technological gap between our part of the world and the developed nations.
Mr Sackey later presented a certificate to Mr Awuah in acknowledgement of the latter’s valuable contribution to the development of ICT education in Ghana.
Nana Kwame Korang, the Omanhene of the Odumase Number One Traditional Area, who chaired the function, expressed his gratitude to the MP for the gesture and urged teachers, pupils and students to make maximum use of the facility to broaden their knowledge.