Legal luminary, founder and retired senior partner of one of the leading law firms in Ghana, “Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah”, Mr. Kojo Bentsi-Enchill, has called on education authorities in Ghana to incorporate Information & Communication Technology (ICT) fully into all forms and levels of education in order to prepare the learning population for the future.

Mr. Bentsi-Enchill, observed that Technology has not been an essential component of education in Ghana at all levels for a myriad of reasons. Proficiency in the use of modern technological resources, he said, has proven to be a challenge for many because of a lack of access and the fact that Internet connectivity is also not necessarily stable and is expensive, making it more of a luxury than a necessity for many.

According to Mr. Bentsi-Enchill, the preferred mode of teaching and learning in Ghana has always involved physical contact in varying degrees, with legal education not an exception. With the onset of COVID-19 and the closing down of all educational institutions to halt the spread of the coronavirus in Ghana, Mr. Bentsi-Enchill noted that there have been attempts at transitioning to online teaching by almost all Law Faculties and the Ghana School of Law with varying degrees of success. This he said, has exposed a worrying lack of preparedness for such a sudden transition, owing to the fact that online teaching and learning is not incorporated in, or necessarily thought of as a substitute to, or compliment of the traditional mode of teaching and learning.

The Forum

The eminent Ghanaian jurist aggregated his concerns when he delivered via Zoom, the fifth lecture of the fourteen (14) week-long “Law and Ethics Web Series”, under the theme, “Leveraging COVID-19 to deliver Technology-Based Learning into the Future”, on Wednesday the 3rd of June 2020. The online seminar is organized jointly by the African Centre on Law and Ethics (ACLE) and the African Centre of International Criminal Justice (ACICJ), both based at the GIMPA Faculty of Law.

Institutional Reforms

In his presentation, Mr. Bentsi-Enchill, recommended technological reforms for all academic institutions in the country and urged them to embrace the use of ICT in how they deliver their mandate to the studying population of the country.

“The pandemic has caused everyone to move forward i am sure, and let us assume that there is no help coming from anywhere, let us examine self-help” . “I believe that no institution should stay the same after the necessary advances that have been forced upon them by the need to respond to the lockdown and the social distancing. Every institution should be fighting to tap the large market for online education” Bentsi-Enchill stated.

ICT and Accreditation Bodies

Turning his attention to accreditation bodies in the country, Mr. Bentsi-Enchill, admonished them to make the inspection and availability of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure an important criteria before law schools and other tertiary institutions are given accreditation to operate. The retired senior partner of “Bentsi-Enchill, Letsa & Ankomah”, recommended that law schools in Ghana ought to introduce complusory Information Technology Law modules as part of the law school curriculum.

Law and Ethics Web Series

The Law and Ethics Web Series begun on Wednesday the 6th of May 2020 on the online meeting platform, Zoom at 2pm. The pending presentations on Jun 10, Jun 17, Jun 24, Jul 1, Jul 8, Jul 15, Jul 22, Jul 29, and Aug 5, 2020, will come on as scheduled. Interested persons can join any of the upcoming sessions by visiting the Zoom application and using the Webinar ID:848-2795-0621 or https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84827950621.

Various speakers have been lined up for the exercise by the organizers. The series is being coordinated by Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Budu, a Lecturer and Head of Law Centers at the GIMPA Faculty of Law. The 3rd of June 2020 session was moderated by Joan Selorm Tsorhe, law lecturer at the GIMPA Faculty of Law, under the distinguished patronage of the Rector of GIMPA, Professor Philip Ebow Bondzi-Simpson, the Honorific Dean of the GIMPA Law Faculty, Justice Sir Dennis Adjei and the founding Dean of the GIMPA Law Faculty, Professor Kwame Frimpong.