Nsawam Prisons inmates benefit from ICT training (Page 16)
More than 200 inmates of the Nsawam
Prisons have benefited from an Information and Communications Technology (ICT)
programme.
The Nsawam Prisons is among 23
others where the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) is
supporting the Ghana Prisons Service to equip prisoners with information
technology skills.
Currently, the inmates are at
various stages of their ICT education, which ends with the writing of the
National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) examination.
The convicts are taken through both
software and hardware training and they are selected based on their interest in
the subject.
Help us
Speaking during a facility tour of
the Nsawam Prisons, the Director General of the GPS, Ms Matilda Baffour-Awuah,
called on corporate organisations and non-governmental organisations to help in
efforts towards the integration of prisoners.
“We are giving them a lot of
training, but when they leave the prisons it is difficult for them to settle
down. We are, therefore, appealing to corporate Ghana and benevolent
organisations to come to our aid to provide financial assistance for them or
take them on board and provide opportunities for them. It is important that we
all support them to reintegrate into society,” she said.
She said the agenda of the service
was to give the opportunity to all inmates to at least read and write, so that
when they went out they would not be left out of the development of the
country.
The facility visit was to
enable GIFEC and the prisons authorities to appraise the ICT programme and its
impact on the beneficiaries and also discuss further areas of support.
The prisons connectivity project
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The Ghana Prisons Service started
the ICT education in 2010. It forms part of the GIFEC Prison Connectivity
Project, which is one of the interventions of the fund to extend ICT to
unserved and under-served communities.
Beneficiaries of the project are the
officers of the prisons in general, inmates of the prisons and new recruits
into the service.
Vocational skills
The programme runs alongside the
traditional courses, including tailoring, carpentry, basket weaving, baking,
tie and dye and soap making.
The Nsawam Prisons currently has a
prison population of about 4,000.
Ms Baffour-Awuah said apart from
vocational training, formal education was high on the agenda of the
service.
She said the service intended to
commercialise items produced by the inmates to help in sustaining the training
programmes in the future.
The Head of ICT Training at the
Nsawam Prisons, DSP Charles C. Clegg, said the pass rate among prisoners who
took the examination was 60 per cent, with some of the students passed with
distinction.
He, however, said because the prison
operated on a meagre budgetary allocation, it could only register a few students
at a time to sit for the examination.
He, therefore, appealed to the
corporate world and individuals to support the prison to add value to the
inmates.
DSP Clegg said the service was
considering registering the inmates studying ICT for the Advanced Business
Certificate Examination (ABCE), which is higher than the NVTI.
The Administrator of GIFEC, Mr Kofi
Attor, pledged the continued support of the fund to ensure that inmates were
equipped to create opportunities for themselves when they got out of prison.
He urged the prisons authorities to
work with the Department of Social Welfare to follow up on how the
beneficiaries used the skills acquired outside prison.
More than 200 inmates of the Nsawam Prisons have benefited from an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) programme.
The Nsawam Prisons is among 23 others where the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications (GIFEC) is supporting the Ghana Prisons Service to equip prisoners with information technology skills.
Currently, the inmates are at various stages of their ICT education, which ends with the writing of the National Vocational Training Institute (NVTI) examination.
The convicts are taken through both software and hardware training and they are selected based on their interest in the subject.
Help us
Speaking during a facility tour of the Nsawam Prisons, the Director General of the GPS, Ms Matilda Baffour-Awuah, called on corporate organisations and non-governmental organisations to help in efforts towards the integration of prisoners.“We are giving them a lot of training, but when they leave the prisons it is difficult for them to settle down. We are, therefore, appealing to corporate Ghana and benevolent organisations to come to our aid to provide financial assistance for them or take them on board and provide opportunities for them. It is important that we all support them to reintegrate into society,” she said.
She said the agenda of the service was to give the opportunity to all inmates to at least read and write, so that when they went out they would not be left out of the development of the country.
The facility visit was to enable GIFEC and the prisons authorities to appraise the ICT programme and its impact on the beneficiaries and also discuss further areas of support.
The prisons connectivity project
The Ghana Prisons Service started the ICT education in 2010. It forms part of the GIFEC Prison Connectivity Project, which is one of the interventions of the fund to extend ICT to unserved and under-served communities.Beneficiaries of the project are the officers of the prisons in general, inmates of the prisons and new recruits into the service.
Vocational skills
The programme runs alongside the traditional courses, including tailoring, carpentry, basket weaving, baking, tie and dye and soap making.The Nsawam Prisons currently has a prison population of about 4,000.
Ms Baffour-Awuah said apart from vocational training, formal education was high on the agenda of the service.
She said the service intended to commercialise items produced by the inmates to help in sustaining the training programmes in the future.
The Head of ICT Training at the Nsawam Prisons, DSP Charles C. Clegg, said the pass rate among prisoners who took the examination was 60 per cent, with some of the students passed with distinction.
He, however, said because the prison operated on a meagre budgetary allocation, it could only register a few students at a time to sit for the examination.
He, therefore, appealed to the corporate world and individuals to support the prison to add value to the inmates.
DSP Clegg said the service was considering registering the inmates studying ICT for the Advanced Business Certificate Examination (ABCE), which is higher than the NVTI.
The Administrator of GIFEC, Mr Kofi Attor, pledged the continued support of the fund to ensure that inmates were equipped to create opportunities for themselves when they got out of prison.
He urged the prisons authorities to work with the Department of Social Welfare to follow up on how the beneficiaries used the skills acquired outside prison.
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