Ms. Anthonia Senam Fesu, an Information Communication and Technology (ICT) teacher with the Ghana Education Service (GES), has urged teachers and learners to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance the education sector.
Ms. Fesu said this during the 2024 Barcamp Tema, organised by the GhanaThink Foundation to mentor, network, train, and empower young people across the country.
She explained that AI, which is a computer system capable of performing complex tasks, had come to stay and had positive impact on teaching and learning in schools.
She noted that AI had also provided students with the chance to ask and acquire a wide repository of knowledge both locally and internationally, enabling them to dream bigger.
She added that it had made teaching and learning much easier and broader for both teachers and students, as students who were not able to ask questions in class had the chance to get wide knowledge or ideas from the system.
“It is also encouraging students to explore and learn widely in the sense that they now ask mind-blowing questions, and with this automated learning system, students are able to get some information that they can apply in the classrooms and their daily lives,” she stated.
Mr. Joel Louis Mensah, a teacher and youth empowerment advocate, also reiterated that AI should be prioritised in Ghana’s education system as the level of teaching and learning had now become profound with tough, practical, and thought-provoking information that becomes quite challenging for young people to solve.
Mr. Mensah added that there were times students asked questions that became challenging for the teachers to sometimes break down, adding that in such a situation, they recommended AI for the students to research and understand.
He said, “I recommended AI to a student to help her understand a concept in biology because she didn’t understand, and after learning, she taught her classmates, and she was pleased with the results.”
He noted that AI was a great invention, and it was up to students and young people to use it well to empower themselves and broaden their knowledge to be successful in their career paths.
Mr. Ronald Tagoe, Chief Engagement Officer of mNotify and AI coach, stated that AI was developed to perform tasks that normally required the ability of humans, expressing the belief that it was built to make some critical human tasks easier.
He added that AI was not invented to make people lazy or take their jobs but rather to add value to the work they do and make them work better, noting, however, that relying solely on it would lead to unemployment.
He encouraged girls and women to take advantage of AI and join the technological space, noting that there were a lot of opportunities in the sector, with women in tech becoming the most interesting job now.
He encouraged girls to get mentors and coaches in the technological and AI space to assist them in their career paths.
GNA
LS/KOA/GRB
22 May 2024
