Mobile Phone Usage Among Senior High and Technical School Students in Ghana and Its Impact on Academic Outcomes - A Case Study

There are currently over 7.6 billion mobile phone connections in the world, which is approximately equivalent to the world's population; as if to say that everyone in the world is hooked up to mobile telephony. By the next decade, it is estimated that the number of mobile phone subscribers would increase by a billion with 90% of this growth coming from developing countries. This exponential growth coupled with its ubiquity highlights its essentiality in all spheres of human endeavour. Despite the fact that many sectors in developing countries worldwide are embracing its usage as an effective tool, the Ghana Education Service (GES) has placed a ban on the use of mobile phones in senior high schools, technical and vocational institutions. Bearing in mind that most of these institutions provide boarding facilities for their students for long periods of time - spanning over several months; the teaching and learning experience is denied access to mobile phones over this long period. This study administered a survey to determine whether this denial has any impact on educational outcomes and what the impact would be if done otherwise. Using variations of selective and random sampling methods on a sample size of 150 respondents from the Nkoranza municipality, results from the study showed that the use of mobile phones in the Ghana educational system will have a positive impact on the teaching and learning process. Teachers and students would have easy access to up-to-date educational materials. However, the study recommends that for this to be effective and sustainable, proper usage supervision must be provided especially for students in order to avoid negative influence that stem from some social media.