Launching the Leyden-Alison Integrated Online Programme at the University of Ghana, Legon, Dr Bawumia said electronic(e)-learning was an essential force for democratising education and critical for inclusive education.

He added that integrated online learning was the appropriate method to instruct students in remote areas and held the way for education transformation in Ghana and globally.

“The integrated online programme holds the key to inclusive education to populations who otherwise would have restricted access to education because of geography and status handicap. E-learning is an appropriate method to instruct students in remote areas,” the Vice President stated.

The Leyden-Alison Integrated Online Programmes has more than 3,000 courses online and would equip trainees with practical knowledge and employable skills using cutting-edge instructional methods.

The Centre will be based at the University of Ghana, Legon.

Vice President Bawumia entreated the Ghanaian youth to take advantage of the online courses to improve their employable skills for national development.

He said the COVID-19 pandemic had made Information Communication Technology an essential tool locally and globally for teaching and learning as well as a feasible and appropriate means of extending quality education.

Some of the benefits of e-learning, he said, included ensuring that trainees had access to consistent and standardized training, cost effective, and reduced carbon emissions as printing of papers was minimized drastically.

The Vice President recalled government’s digitization programmes and educational reforms that were in sync with the Leyden-Alison Integrated Online Programmes and believed would go a long way in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Four.