By Francis

Copyright thebftonline

On a hot afternoon in a village near Kpong, I watched a class of JHS pupils crowd around a single solar-powered tablet. The teacher cued a short video about the water cycle, then paused it to ask questions.

The children answered, argued a little, and then practised the same ideas with a simple offline quiz loaded on the device. After the lesson, a young girl tugged my sleeve and asked, “Sir, can I use that tablet to learn coding too?”

Her question – full of curiosity and quiet hope – said everything: given the chance, rural learners will run with technology.

That image is the promise of Edtech beyond Accra. It shows us that when tools, content and support reach rural classrooms in the right way, they do more than digitize lessons – they expand possibility.

Where Ghana stands today

Ghana is more connected than many imagine. As of January 2025 there were about 24.3 million internet users in Ghana – roughly 70percent penetration – driven mostly by mobile access. That scale gives Edtech an unusually broad reach to build on.

At the same time, the government’s Smart Schools Project – launched publicly in 2024 – aims to distribute tablets to senior high school students nationwide (about 1.3 million tablets announced), signalling intent to mainstream digital learning across both urban and rural schools.

But national averages hide deep divides: many rural schools still face unreliable electricity, limited connectivity, few devices, and teachers who lack practical training in digital pedagogy.

GIFEC’s network of Community ICT Centres (CICs) and rural telephony sites is expanding to address connectivity gaps – there were several hundred CICs and plans to grow the footprint in recent years – showing where public infrastructure can meet local needs.

Why rural Edtech must be different

Imported, high-bandwidth solutions that assume steady Wi‑Fi and new laptops simply won’t fly in many remote schools. Rural Edtech must be designed for the constraints and strengths of the communities it serves:

Offline-first functionality. Lessons that sync when connectivity returns; content that works from local servers or SD cards.Low-cost, robust hardware. Solar-charged tablets, talking books and devices that survive dusty classrooms.Local language and context. Learning materials that use familiar examples, folktales and local names so lessons stick.Teacher-centred support. Regular, practice-based training and in-class coaching, not single-day workshops.

These design choices aren’t theoretical. They’re already showing impact across Ghana and the continent.

What’s working — real examples

Take Mavis Talking Books – a solar-powered audio device preloaded with stories, literacy activities and lessons. Implementations in low-resource schools have shown measurable improvements in early reading when combined with teacher support and community engagement. Evaluations of talking-book programmes report positive learning gains and higher engagement where the tools are used consistently.

Local Edtech startups like eCampus are also tailoring content to Ghanaian curricula, using mobile-first, low-data approaches and analytics that help learners practise past-paper questions and track progress – solutions that can scale to reach learners outside main cities. And the global evidence is sobering but motivational: past World Bank and UNESCO analyses show that many African children are still failing to master basic literacy and numeracy – highlighting the urgency of practical, scalable Edtech interventions in rural areas. Edtech can be part of the remedy – if deployed with care.

How Edtech can transform rural learning — practical pathways

Scale ‘offline-first’ clusters – equip schools with local content servers, solar power and a few shared tablets or talking books. These clusters let dozens of schools access the same materials without constant internet.Use CICs as learning hubs — GIFEC’s Community ICT Centres can host teacher workshops, community classes and weekend youth clubs, linking school learning to broader community skills.Prioritise local content creators — fund small teams to build lessons in Twi, Ewe, Dagbani and other languages; prioritise curriculum alignment so Edtech supports WAEC, BECE and teacher lesson plans.Embed teacher mentorship — pair devices with continuous professional development (CPD) delivered through blended coaching, peer learning groups and SMS/IVR support for teachers working offline.Measure what matters — track learning gains, attendance, and teacher adoption rates; use simple dashboards to help headteachers make decisions. Local pilots should publish results so what works grows faster.

The human purpose behind the tech

Technology is a tool — powerful, but only purposeful when it serves the deeper mission of education. Our aim is not to fill classrooms with gadgets, but to nurture capable, competent, audacious, empathetic and patriotic citizens who will shape Ghana’s future. Imagine rural students who learn science with virtual labs, girls in remote communities who access coding clubs after school, or farmers’ children who build digital apps to improve local markets. That is the long-term payoff of reaching beyond Accra.

A final, urgent note

Edtech can transform rural education in Ghana, but only if we design for rural realities, invest in teachers and infrastructure, and insist that every digital programme serves both learning outcomes and nation-building values.

The tablet under the mango tree becomes meaningful only when it is supported by power, content, training and community trust. When that happens, the girl who asked if she could learn coding will not only ask the question—she’ll answer it, build an app, and perhaps, someday, employ others to solve the very problems she grew up with. That’s how we move from promise to progress—beyond Accra, for every Ghanaian child.

>>>the writer is an Edtech enthusiast, writer, and President of the Ghana Edtech Alliance. He is passionate about telling powerful stories at the intersection of education, technology, and human potential. Email – [email protected]