Many Ghanaians don’t believe COVID-19 is real; they want to see some evidence of death on TV to shock them – Bagbin

May 20, 2020 by with 0 comment

The Second Deputy Speaker of Parliament (MP), Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, is demanding for lifeless bodies of COVID-19 victims to be displayed on national television.

This, he believes, will help enforce the message that the virus exists so people could change their ways.

In the view of Hon. Bagbin, who is the legislator for Nadowli/Kaleo constituency, the blatant disregard for COVID-19 protocols and seeing people still living their normal lives is worrying.

Speaking on the floor of Parliament on Tuesday, May 19, 2020, Hon. Bagbin, said his call was based on feedback he has received from a cross section of the public.

He argued that the display of some evidence on national television stations will help wake people from their “slumber” and make them think that COVID-19 is real.

His contribution followed an update by the Minister of Health, Mr Kwaku Agyeman Manu in Parliament on Tuesday.

To the country’s longest serving MP, what he prescribes as “shock therapy” was the sure way to help make people change from how they are responding to the threats posed by the disease.

“Awareness creation, education, when a leader, you must know the people you are leading well. In Ghana, my dear Minister for Communication was saying that even though we don’t see God, we believe that God exists. You cannot see God because God is spirit, it is not the same for this disease, they are not spirits. But the important thing is that the people we are leading, they want to see. In fact, I want to see on TV some evidence of death because when you state that this number of people are dead but they are not seeing anything like that [it will not give them the shock of their life].

“I believe in the shock therapy. We need shock therapy to wake them up from slumber and make them know COVID-19 is real,” Hon. Bagbin proposed.

Ghana’s Coronavirus case count increased to 5,918 after 183 new cases were confirmed on Tuesday, May 19, 2020.

Two new deaths were also reported on Tuesday, increasing the death toll to 31, since the first case of the disease was recorded on March 12, 2020

COVID-19: Ghana’s case count now 5,918 with 1,754 recoveries

May 19, 2020 by with 0 comment

Latest update of the data on coronavirus outbreak in Ghana released by the country’s Health Service indicate that 183 more persons have tested positive for the virus.

This brings the total number of confirmed positive cases in the West African country to 5,918.

Two more persons who tested positive for the virus have also been confirmed dead, raising the death toll to 31 with the number of recoveries still at 1,754.

The Greater Accra Region, according to the data, still leads as the hottest spot with increasing cases from 4,314 to 4,422, the Ashanti Region has also recorded 63 new cases bringing the total number of recorded cases in the region to 881.

Central Region also has two more cases with a total of 212, while the Eastern Region now has 100 cases.

Savannah, Ahafo and Bono East still remain the only regions yet to record cases.

Full regional breakdown below;

Greater Accra Region – 4,422

Ashanti Region – 881

Central Region – 212

Eastern Region – 100

Western Region – 98

Western North Region – 57

Volta Region – 41

Northern Region – 31

Oti Region – 26

Upper East Region – 26

Upper West Region – 21

North East Region – 2

Bono Region – 1

Savannah Region – 0

Ahafo Region – 0

Bono East Region – 0

Parliament reconvenes today; Affirmative Action Bill high on agenda

May 19, 2020 by with 0 comment

The Parliament of Ghana is expected to reconvene, Tuesday, May 19, 2020 at 10:00 in the forenoon to commence sitting for the Second Meeting of the Fourth Session of the Seventh Parliament.

A statement released by the Public Affairs Directorate, Parliament of Ghana, and signed by its Director, Kate Addo, said 36 bills will be expected to be presented during the Meeting.

High on the agenda of this Meeting is the Affirmative Action Bill, 2020, which seeks to address the social, cultural, economic and political gender imbalance in Ghana based on the historical discrimination against women emanating from persistent patriarchal sociocultural systems and norms in spite of the gender equality of men and women.

The Bill, when passed will provide a framework for gender equality and the empowerment of women aimed at providing both the executive and legislative yardstick for measuring the commitment and progress of the country towards achieving gender equality.

Also, the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2020, the National Ambulance Service (Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Value Added Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2020 will be prioritized during the Meeting.

Furthermore, eighteen Bills are currently at the Committee level, including the Public Universities Bill, 2020; Conduct of Public Officers Bills, 2018; Exemptions Bill, 2019; Legal Profession (Amendment) Bill, 2018; Intestate Succession Bill, 2018, which are expected to be worked on during this meeting.

According to the statement the Ghana Cocoa Board (Amendment) Bill, 2017, which is with the Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, will be read a second time.

The Education Regulatory Bodies Bill, 2019, Pre-Tertiary Education Bill, 2019; the Land Bill, 2018 among others are at the consideration stage.

Leadership of the House has given the assurance it will critically observe social distancing protocol during the Meeting.

 

UG students demand partial refund of academic and residential fees

May 18, 2020 by with 0 comment

Students of the University of Ghana, Legon, are demanding for a partial refund of academic and residential fees.

They have in effect, initiated an online petition, calling on all their colleagues to sign for same to be forwarded to the authorities of the university for redress.

An electronic copy of the petition, a copy of which has been sighted by www.politicoghana.com, and jointly signed by Kojo Danquah and Sampson Tagbor, Lead Petitioners, is urging all students to provide critical support to the petitioners to advance the agenda at stake by signing the petition.

“We are of the strong conviction that the agreement for academic tuition and residency the University had with students prior to admission and registration are hinged on the invaluable face-to-face lecture delivery by lecturers, social contact and academic interactions among students and direct access to facilities like the Science Labs, Computer Labs, WiFi System, Sporting fields, the well equipped Library System including that of departmental and Junior Common Rooms (JCRs) libraries among others of which students are no longer guaranteed access to under the current E-Learning arrangements for the rest of the semester”, the petition in part read.

Save our schools from collapse – Private schools appeal to Akufo-Addo

May 18, 2020 by with 0 comment

The Conference of Heads of Private Second-Cycle Schools (CHOPSS) and the Ghana National Association of Private Schools (GNAPS) have sent an SOS message to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, appealing to him to help save their collapsing business.

They want the President to give them a stimulus package that will revitalize their business and make them robust and competitive once again.

They claim that the impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has had dire consequences on their business, making them unable to pay salaries to their teaching staff as well as meet some other operational costs.

The Public Relations Officer of CHOPPS, Naphtali A. Kyei-Baffour, in an interview with Accra-based Okay FM monitored by www.politicoghana.com, on Monday May 18, 2020, said, “We are appealing to the President to give us a stimulus package. Because the more the ban on social gatherings, the more our teachers are suffering. If we had even been allowed to return to school, the effects would have been minimized”.

He said as a first to their request, they have applied to the National Board for Small Scale Industries (NBSSI), the body mandated to manage the Coronavirus Alleviation Programme (CAP) Business Support Scheme, for help and are awaiting for the programme to be launched so they could have access to the packages available.

Further to that, he appealed to parents whose children are in the private schools and are owing school fees for second term to try as much as possible to redeem themselves to enable them pay the salary of their staff.

“We are appealing to the parents to at least make some part payment to enable the schools also pay their staff some money to sustain them because we are in this together and so let us all come together and help address this challenge”, he pleaded.

According to him, once the schools are liberated from the mishap, ” We will surely catch up and repay whatever was given to us”.

In all a total of 10,000 private basic schools and 380 private senior high schools are in need of government’s support to survive.

Michael Essien named best ever Ghanaian player to have played in EPL

May 17, 2020 by with 0 comment

Former Ghana International, Michael Essien, has been voted the Best Ghanaian player to ever play in the English Premier League.

The former Chelsea midfielder was in the competition with Tony Yeboah, Asamoah Gyan, Jordan Ayew and Sulley Muntari.

The Premier League has registered Ghanaian internationals like Tony Yeboah, Nii Lamptey, the Ayew brothers and others.

In all 25 players from Ghana have played in the English Premier League.

Nii Lamptey joined Aston Villa in 1994 before Tony Yeboah also signed for Leeds United in 1995.

Tony Yeboah became the first-ever Ghanaian to register a goal in the competition with his remarkable goal for Leeds United in February 1995.

Among his breathtaking goals, Tony Yeboah, scored a total of 24 goals, the highest by a Ghanaian international but it was recently equaled by Jordan Ayew who plies his root for Crystal Palace.

Ghana all-time top scorer for the senior national team, Asamoah Gyan, also joined Sunderland for a season and scored 10 goals.

Sulley Muntari joined Portsmouth and won the FA cup.

Michael Essien, the player with most appearances in the Premier League having featured for Chelsea 168 times, scored 17 goals with 10 assists and won the Premier League title twice.

The poll was organized by Premierleague.com, the official website of the English Premier League to settle the debate on who is the greatest Ghanaian player to grace the competition.

Football fans across the world most especially Ghana crowned Michael Essien the best with a percentage of over 73%.

Tony Yeboah placed second with 13%, Jordan Ayew who is on the verge of becoming the best Ghanaian strike in the league had 9% in the third place.

Asamoah Gyan and Sulley Muntari, took the forth and the fifth place respectively with a percentage of 4% and 2%.

Source: GhanaNewsPage.Com

COVID-19: Ghana’s case count now stands at 5,735, 29 deaths with 1,754 recoveries

May 17, 2020 by with 0 comment

New data released by the Ghana Health Service (GES) indicate that the country’s confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has reached 5,734.

This follows the recording of 97 more positive cases of the virus.

Barely 24 hours ago, Ghana’s case count had stood at 5,639 with 28 deaths and with 1,460 recoveries.

As of today, May 16, 2020, 294 more persons have recovered from the disease bringing the number of recoveries to 1,754.

In terms of the regional breakdown, the Greater Accra region still leads with 4,314 cases, followed by the Ashanti region with 818 cases. The Central region now has 210 cases whilst the Eastern and Western regions have 99 and 98 cases respectively.

Savannah, Ahafo and Bono East remain the only regions without a confirmed case of COVID-19.

Check the regional breakdown below

Greater Accra Region – 4,314

Ashanti Region – 818

Central Region – 210

Eastern Region – 99

Western Region – 98

Western North Region – 57

Volta Region – 34

Northern Region – 31

Upper East Region – 26

Oti Region – 24

Upper West Region – 21

North East Region – 2

Bono Region – 1

Savannah Region – 0

Ahafo Region – 0

Bono East Region – 0

Nursing and Midwifery Council searches for twerking nurse in video gone viral

May 16, 2020 by with 0 comment
The Nurses and Midwifery Council (NMC) has initiated a probe into the conduct of an unidentified nurse whose twerking video has gone viral on social media.The video of a nurse in uniform went viral on social media some days ago which got a number of Ghanaians talking considering the fact that the video put the noble profession in a bad light.

Reacting to the video which has been described as sexually explicit, the Nurses and Midwifery Council in a statement condemned unequivocally the conduct of the yet-to-be identified nurse.

The conduct of the nurse, according to the Council, is an affront to the noble profession.

The Council has therefore, referred their issue to the Disciplinary Department for investigations to begin to identify the nurse in question and proffer the needed sanction on her.

The Council sent a note of caution to all nurses to desist from actions which are against their profession’s regulations because it will not hesitate in sanctioning them when they go wrong.

 

Make PWDs key beneficiaries Of COVID-19 Trust Fund – Otiko to Gov’t

May 16, 2020 by with 0 comment

The Henry Djaba Foundation is calling on Government to make special allocation in the National COVID-19 Trust Fund to support Persons with Disability (PWDs) who have lost their income as a result of the pandemic.

The Foundation is also requesting the Government to consider the PWDs in the disbursement of the Six Hundred Million (GH¢600 million) stimulus package to enable them start up or expand their Small and Medium Enterprises.

The call follows efforts entire world is making to observe the 2020 International Day of Families amid the deadly Coronavirus pandemic.

The Executive Director of the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation, Dr. Otiko Afisah Djaba, in a statement issued in Accra, on Friday, May 15, 2020, said the COVID-19 pandemic had sharply revealed the need for Ghana to invest heavily in social policies to protect the most vulnerable groups and families.

The Former Minister for Gender, Children and Social Protection hinted of the devastating effects of COVID-19 on most PWDs- majority of whom are jobless, parents with children and are without any sources of income.

She urged the Government to pay special attention to, and support parents of children with disabilities who experience a whole set of added challenges in ensuring their children’s welfare.

She said most of the PWDs who are parents could not help but to bear the brunt of the COVID-19 crisis by feeding, sheltering and caring for their children/families, yet there is no clear-cut sustainable support from the Government to those vulnerable groups.

Dr. Otiko Djaba specially acknowledged one Baba Imoro, a PWD at Santa Maria, who in spite of his disability, had assumed the responsibility of caring for his four (4) children after his wife abandoned the marriage.

The Executive Director of the Henry Djaba Memorial Foundation also raised serious concern about how most families had neglected the responsibility of caring and supporting their own members who have physical disabilities.

She observed that families are supposed to be the main backbone or support system for people not excluding the PWDs.

She consequently charged all families with persons with disability to show love, care and support at all times.

Dr. Djaba also paid special tribute to all families that give protection, love and care to persons with disability despite the stigmatisation.

This year’s International Day of Families is under the theme: “Families in Development: Copenhagen & Beijing+25”.

The Day was set aside by the United Nations General Assembly in 1994, to promote awareness of issues relating to families and to increase knowledge of the social and economic issues that affect families worldwide.

Dr. Djaba said, “Families in Ghana and across the world are the foundation of society. Most of the formative years of our lives are spent growing up with our families. Family is not always blood relations alone. It is also about people who have impacted your life, or the ones who accept you for who you are. Family is about the one you love and the one who loves you no matter what. Family indeed is considered as bedrock of all social life and when it comes to old age, sickness and any form of disability, family serves as social security both financially and emotionally”.

Smart Review: Better Voice Recognition with SoapBox Labs

May 16, 2020 by with 0 comment

I recently had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Patricia Scanlon, CEO, and Founder of SoapBox Labs, a Dublin based company that develops speech recognition technology for kids. Scanlon has a Ph.D. in speech recognition technology and more than twenty years of experience in this area. She was named as one of the top 50 Global Women in Technology by Forbes in 2018.

In 2013, Scanlon’s three-year-old daughter was using an app to learn to read and practice phonics. Scanlon noticed that something was missing when she would ask questions and her daughter didn’t know the answers. Scanlon began researching the voice technology solutions available for children. Unlike the common voice assistant apps such as Alexa and Siri which are built using predominantly adult voice data, she found that there were not any products available that worked well for children.

To find a solution, Scanlon began her work by focusing on adult speech patterns and then studied the voice differences of children between the ages of 3 and 12. The team at SoapBox spent several years collecting speech samples from children to learn more and build the most efficient and effective product.

Why Siri Doesn’t Work for Kids
I have been quite interested in learning more about digital tools for early learners, in particular with voice assistants and speech recognition software. As a classroom teacher and someone who is interested in artificial intelligence, I am often asked about the use of voice assistants in the classroom and the benefits of speech recognition software in education.

When I asked Scanlon about the effectiveness of using Siri or Alexa with younger children, she said that while they may work in narrow use cases, they have not been built for kids’ voices specifically, so they cannot be relied upon for accuracy. As children are still developing their vocal cords, they cannot always enunciate their words properly, tend to pause, or can become distracted while speaking. Therefore the performance of traditional voice systems that are not built specifically for kids is poor.

While a child may not have made an error in their reading or pronunciation, a voice technology system may mark it as wrong because the technology is not designed to listen to and accurately understand a child’s speech pattern. Because speech recognition for younger children is challenging and complex, Scanlon decided to invest herself in finding a way to provide this technology for children.

Why does SoapBox work for kids?
SoapBox is different from other speech recognition technologies because it focuses specifically on the unique voice, speech patterns, and even the behaviors of children. It can accommodate for acoustic and behavioral differences that might be part of a child’s developmental speech, or their speech while reading a particular passage, such as speaking quietly or loudly when excited. The technology also works well in noisy environments that children may be working in such as playgrounds, kitchens, and classrooms.

With many schools faced with remote learning, in the absence of being in the classroom and hearing students read and providing feedback that is critical for their growth, this type of technology can be quite valuable. Using speech recognition technology, teachers receive feedback on the literacy and language development of their students through the teacher dashboard and are able to provide critical feedback and support to students and their families.

Children receive immediate feedback on their reading and pronunciation, can re-do the activities, practice, and begin to understand areas that they need to work on, therefore becoming more self-aware. Because of this real-time feedback, we will see an increase in learning potential and higher learner engagement. Using this type of technology to build literacy skills, the students can continue to engage in learning independently.

Uses of SoapBox Labs
SoapBox technology can be integrated into existing digital and physical platforms, including gaming, smart toys, English language learning tools, robotics, interactive, and even augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) experiences. The SoapBox Labs technology is licensed to third party companies developing kids’ products, who then integrate their entertainment and education platforms.

The technology has been beneficial for early literacy, and in specialist areas like dyslexia, and promotes more access for children with challenges such as English language learners. WIDA is also interested in how SoapBox Labs technology can help students with these language learning needs.

Most recently, SoapBox Labs created SoapBox Fluency, a first of its kind technology that offers voice-enabled assessments for literacy. SoapBox Fluency provides teachers with a way to assess K-5 literacy when the SoapBox technology is integrated into the edtech platforms being used for the formative and summative assessments. Using this technology enables teachers to supplement their observational assessments of student literacy development and provide more independent practice opportunities for students. Students are assessed as they work on phonics, short sentences, and along the way as they develop their fluency skills. Students are scored based on accuracy and are prompted to redo a word or sentence and can continue practicing.

Safe and secure for students
An important consideration when using different apps, especially with children, is data privacy. Scanlon said that data privacy is critical and protecting kids’ voice data privacy is fundamental to who SoapBox Labs is as a company. Being a parent also guided her work when it came to data privacy. SoapBox Labs is COPPA and GDPR compliant.

When it comes to data privacy, Scanlon is often quoted as saying,

“It wasn’t cheaper and it wasn’t faster to build-in data privacy, but from the start of the company we wanted to set ourselves up for long term success and that meant building our technology and processes in a way that respected every child’s fundamental right to data privacy”.

The future of speech recognition
Scanlon believes that speech recognition technology will become more intelligent and increasingly more accurate. Voice is a natural interface for children because as young children cannot yet read, they are learning critical skills like reading through interactions such as with voice technologies. SoapBox Labs will be adding additional languages including Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese, French and Italian.

To learn more about Scanlon’s passion for the work that she does, I recommend watching her TED Talk on “How Technology Transforms a Child’s Reading Journey” delivered at the University of Limerick in July of 2019. To learn more about SoapBox Labs, explore some of the use cases and latest updates.

Credit: www.gettingsmart.com