Thursday, 28 March

COVID-19: CST a disincentive to online education – COA

Education
Awo Aidam Amenyah, Child Online Africa

Child Online Africa (COA) has described government’s Communication Service Tax (CST) as a disincentive to the “online classrooms” initiative adopted by the Ministry of Education in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country.

COA has, therefore, called on the government to halt the deductions of the CST to reduce the cost of internet services in the country to enable children go online to join the classes.

Ghana has so far recorded 136 cases of COVID-19, three deaths and one recovery.

The Government as part of measures to prevent further spread of the deadly virus has placed a ban on public gathering. Schools have also been shut down across the country but the Ministry of Education has rolled out an initiative to have students study online.

COA says it agrees with “government's decision to leverage the internet and Mass Media (Radio/TV) by rolling out Virtual classrooms on these platforms to aid children at home to study their course contents online.”

In a statement, COA, however, noted that “school children would have to spend more time on the internet in order to stay in school” a situation which according to them will require that persons spend more on “data charges which is likely to create a situation where some parents will discourage their wards from staying online in order to reduce cost.”

According to COA, since the government is “enjoined by the constitution to remove all barriers to education,” in the wake of the outbreak of COVID-19, it “sees government's Communication Service Tax as a disincentive to the 'online classrooms' initiative.”

It has, therefore, urged the government “to immediately put on hold any further deductions of the CST to ease the cost of Internet Services in Ghana.”

 

 

Source: Classsfmonline.com