MoE gives date for the ‘first batch’ distribution of SHS SM1 tablets

The first batch distribution of the students mate 1 (SM1) tablets to second-cycle school students will begin next week. The first phase tablets are to cost 112 million cedis, whereas the entire 1.3 million will amount to 337 million Ghana cedis, the Minister for Education, Dr Yaw Adutwum has said.

In an interview with JoyNews on JoyNews’ Newsfile monitored by Thisterm.com, he said the first phase of distribution of the students mate 1 tablets will see about 450,000 electronic devices distributed to Senior High School students.

The distribution of tablets, the Education Minister indicated has been categorized into three phases, with 450,000 to be distributed in 32 second cycle schools (SHS) to ensure the effective distribution of a total of 1.3 million tablets.

“The 450,000 is a little less than 30 %, the deployment is such that it is in three phases. The first phase which is hitting the regions and schools in the next coming week, is going to 32 schools in the 16 regions,” Adutwum told JoyNews.

The Minister for Education added “Once it gets to the school, there is a dashboard that informs us the tablets are here. The whole idea is to ensure that you will do a phased approach to deployment and don’t get the system overwhelmed

Explaining further the SM1 tablets distribution process he said “Once we get them to the 32 schools, then within a week or two thereafter the rest which is phase two also starts moving to the schools, so it’s a phased deployment.”

To make typing easier for prospective students to use the government-procured tablets, the Minister said the student mate one tablet comes with a keyboard as a complement that can make it function as a laptop or solely as a tablet.

“There’s also a power bank in it, and in case the power goes out, there’s a solar panel that allows you to charge it using solar in the case of this device. So, that is in response to the issue of erratic power supply at certain times.

Asked how much each tablet costs, he said the unit price for each tablet is $250 adding that ICT Coordinators in the schools have offered training to teachers and will continue to train the schools receiving the tablets on their effective usage.