Ghana's Educational Policymakers and Their Impact on Information and Communication Technology Education: A Case Study of a Ghanaian Model Senior High School

The main goal of the research was to explore the lived experiences of Ghana's ICT in Education Policy makers and their impact on ICT education in Ghana. The research used Odorgonno Senior High School (OSHS) as a case study to ascertain how ICT is being implemented. The Assistant headmaster, teachers and students were interviewed to ascertain their ICT use in the school. The study used a phenomenological case study as a research design to explore the lived experiences of the respondents. In all, 30 respondents took part in the study. The findings of the study have shown that as much as Ghana's ICT Policy makers have immensely worked towards the development of the ICT policy document, the implementation of the policy was fraught with operational and leadership challenges. ICT in education implementation process at OSHS was bedeviled with problems such as inadequate ICT facilities, poor Internet connectivity and lack of capacity of teachers to integrate ICT in education. Students were not given enough time to practice their computer competency skills and the inability of the government and school's management to provide ICT facilities to the computer laboratories. Most of the computers were broken down and some were obsolete. It was evident from the findings that computers and the Internet are dominant ICT facilities used in the school. Other Internet facilities were not used. To address the challenges facing the implementation of the Policy, there is need to for a multifaceted approach. There is the need for the provision in ICT facilities to schools, the need for the ICT implementation plan at the national level and technology plans at the school level. Also, there is a need to review the ban on cell phone usage in the schools and professional development training for teachers and school administrators. The Ministry of Education and Ghana Education Service have to put in place persistence monitoring, supervision and evaluation mechanisms in the schools. To alleviate financial pressure on government to provide ICT infrastructural to the schools, there is a call for private-government partnership to provide teaching materials and ICT resources to the schools.