The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has left in its wake, life altering experiences across every human endeavour.

According to UNESCO, the pandemic has created the largest disruption of education systems in history, affecting nearly 1.6 billion learners in more than 190 countries across all continents. Teaching and learning have seen significant adaptations, lending themselves to online and virtual means because of social distancing.

This situation has become ominous for developing countries where the education systems have failed to support this new way of teaching and learning.

With this sudden shift away from traditional classroom teaching and learning coupled with the demands of a fast-paced world on the back of technology, strategic partnerships and interventions are required to give students the best available options.

It is in bridging this gap within the current exigencies in education that Stanbic Bank is providing two hundred (200) laptops to the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST).

The intervention, which forms part of the University’s Support One Needy Student with One Laptop (SONSOL) initiative, is aimed at supporting students who are brilliant but unable to afford computers to aid their studies.

Hakeem Shaibu, Ashanti-Bono Regional Manager of Stanbic Bank, emphasised the Bank’s unwavering commitment to invest in the development of human skills, particularly the youth, to continue driving Africa’s growth. He said, “The promise of Africa’s future rests on its large number of young people.

That is why Stanbic Bank will continue to partner like-minded institutions to equip and shape the dreams of our future leaders. Every student deserves access to digital resources in order to succeed and thrive in the fourth industrial revolution, and this is one of the things we can do as a Bank to impact their journeys and generations”.

Prof. Mrs Rita Akosuah Dickson, the Vice Chancellor of KNUST put the significance of supporting students to enhance teaching and learning in this era in critical perspective.

“Our position was simply this, no student should be left behind as we enhance and improve our digital maturity in the blended mode of teaching and learning, research and development, entrepreneurship training and community engagements, as well as others.

It is indeed a lot of meaning to us that the all-inclusive educational opportunity that KNUST offers should not at any point in time elude any of our students regardless of their socio-economic background”, she noted.
Prof. Dickson added that:

“We as a university are acutely mindful of not only focusing on excellent online teaching and learning but also imbibing in our students those 21st century skills which do not only make them employable but also employers and leaders in driving the 4th revolution with sufficient digital competences.

Thank you, our partners, for positively responding to our call for help and ultimately advancing the dreams of these students.”

The SONSOL project is part of the Vice Chancellor’s digital vision to ensure no student of KNUST is denied access to online resources due to their socio-economic backgrounds.

Stanbic Bank is set to deliver 100 more laptops to the school over the next couple of years, to support students in critical need of computers. With such interventions, the gap between the rich and the poor, with respect to receiving quality education, can be bridged.