Kumasi, Jan. 18, GNA - Mr Samuel Sarpong, Kumasi Metropolitan Chief Executive, has announced the Assembly's decision to sponsor the training of five teachers in Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Israel. This followed the selection of 18 Junior and Senior High Schools in Nhyiaeso, Oforikrom and Bantama sub-Metropolitan areas to benefit form Internet facilities under the Millennium Cities Initiative (MCI). The schools would be supplied with computers, fixed wireless terminals and free network connectivity.

Zain Communications Limited, Ericsson, a cell phone manufacturing company, the KMA and the MCI had already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for the schools to be hooked to the internet. The MCI is the urban counterpart of the UN Millennium Villages Project, targeting selected middle-sized cities across sub-Saharan Africa for support to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Mr Philip Sowah, Country Manager of Zain, speaking at the official launch of the project, dubbed: "School-to-School Partnership", in Kumasi said there should not be any doubt that ICT could help to lift the country out of poverty and significantly raise the social and economic conditions of the people. It was for this reason that Zain was determined to provide technical support to the schools to ensure that Ghana did not miss the 2015 target of halving poverty.

Mr Sowah said teachers from the selected schools would be trained on the correct use of computer. Present at the launch were Professor Jeffery Sachs, Co-founder of the Millennium Promise Alliance and Director of the Earth Institute, Columbia University, and Nani Annan, wife of UN Chief, Mr Kofi Annan. Prof. Sachs asked beneficiary students to take advantage of the programme and exchange ideas with their foreign counterparts.

Mrs Benedicta Naana Biney, Deputy Director General of the Ghana Education Service, welcomed the project, which she said could serve as an effective means of bridging the digital divide between students in deprived and endowed schools.