The Akufo-Addo-led administration distributed about 83,000 tablets to Senior High School (SHS) students under its flagship digital learning initiative. The goal is to modernise teaching and learning in second-cycle schools, improve digital literacy, and provide access to electronic textbooks to reduce delays in textbook supply.

However, these tech devices have now become items of distraction and an aid in accessing pornography instead of academic materials. This was revealed by the incumbent Education Minister, Harunna Iddrisu, on the floor of Parliament.

He said, "My attention this morning, Mr Speaker, was drawn to the fact that many of the devices are not customised and the students are using them for other purposes, including pornography, which is not acceptable."

In reaction to this, education think-tanks Africa Education Watch (Eduwatch) has urged the Ghana Education Service (GES) to retrieve the tablets from the students and equip them with proper safety controls before giving them back to them.

Project Management Specialist at Eduwatch, Kofi Nkansah Sarkodie, during a media engagement on Friday, November 28, recommended that the devices be recalled to their respective schools for proper management and the installation of UNESCO-approved safety features.

The UNESCO-approved safety features refer to digital safeguards and content controls that align with UNESCO’s global standards for safe, inclusive, and responsible use of technology in education.

“Those tablets have already been procured and distributed. We recommend that GES retrieve them and ensure that the safety measures are fully implemented. Retrieval can be done at the school level, and the necessary safeguards must be deployed. The devices are intended for academic purposes only, to support students’ learning, and not for any other activity,” Sarkodie said.

EduWatch stressed that retrieving and reconfiguring the tablets is essential to protect students from inappropriate content and to ensure the devices fulfil their intended educational function.

According to reports, out of 1.3 million tablets procured, about 980,000 had been distributed, but many were not properly locked. This lack of restrictions allowed students to use them for non-academic purposes, including accessing pornographic content.

The Minister emphasised that the tablets were intended as part of the Free SHS Smart Schools Project, which is an extension of Ghana’s Free Senior High School (FSHS) policy was launched to digitise the Free SHS program by providing tablets preloaded with curriculum materials and building “smart schools” to modernise teaching and learning.

Education Minister Haruna Iddrisu also rebuffed claims that the government did not allocate a budget for the Free Senior High School (SHS) programme.

During the Finance Minister’s budget presentation on the floor of Parliament on Thursday, November 13, he mentioned that the Free SHS will be funded through GetFund, as about a billion cedis has been allocated to the Education support fund.

Mr Iddrisu, on Wednesday, November 19, at a press conference held in Accra, where the Minister provided clarity on the education sector allocations in the 2026 Budget, explained that the misconceptions surrounding the Free SHS allocation are practically impossible.

“The Ghana Education Fund has been allocated 9.9 billion, including 4.2 billion earmarked for Free Senior High School and free TVET infrastructure and services. I’ve heard commentaries suggesting that there is no allocation for Free SHS. That is not practically possible,” he explained.

There were claims from the Minority in Parliament and some civil society groups that the government did not make a direct budgetary allocation for the Free SHS programme in the 2026 Budget. The Minority Caucus argued that while the government highlighted GSLIP and infrastructure expansion, it failed to earmark explicit funds for Free SHS in 2026. They claimed this omission suggested the government was outsourcing Free SHS financing to donor support rather than sustaining it with domestic resources.

The Minister said, “The budget is always done for and on behalf of the President of the Republic, which was his first budget. When the GETFund formula gets to Parliament, you will see the actual numbers,” the Minister added.

He stated that President John Mahama, in the 2025 Budget Statement, outlined a significant policy shift, moving the financing of Free SHS from petroleum revenue to GETFund.

“From 2018 to 2024, Free SHS was largely financed from the country’s petroleum revenue. The shift now is that GETFund will provide the financing. When the GETFund formula gets to Parliament, you will see the actual numbers,” he said.

The Minister added that the allocation will also cover student feeding and support the rollout of free tertiary education for persons with disability, effective 2026. The policy forms part of the government’s Inclusive Education Policy.

“I have submitted a comprehensive policy paper to Cabinet to look at the possibility of introducing free education for all learners in special and integrated schools across the country. I intend that if I get the support of the President and Cabinet, which I trust I have, from 1 January 2026, we should be able to provide for the needs of all learners with special needs in our country,” Mr Haruna noted.