Abstract
While GIS education is booming and even emerging in secondary schools in developed countries, in developing countries, dearth of equipment, supplies, and trained personnel remain major impediments. Unstable power compounds the problem further and restricts computer access mostly to Internet cafes in urban areas. This is the situation in Ghana, where awareness of the value of GIS as a decision-making tool is matched with very little application. GIS education is just beginning and currently limited to the country’s major universities. We discuss the challenges and prospects of introducing GIS education in Ghana’s secondary schools and conclude that fundamental challenges, including recognition of the importance of GIS, the weak national ICT infrastructure, the cost of computer hardware and software, and an education tradition that places more value on postgraduate education, are significant obstacles that must be overcome.
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Oppong, J.R., Ofori-Amoah, B. (2012). Ghana: Prospects for Secondary School GIS Education in a Developing Country. In: Milson, A., Demirci, A., Kerski, J. (eds) International Perspectives on Teaching and Learning with GIS in Secondary Schools. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2120-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-2120-3_13
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