The Government of Ghana has embarked on a bold mission to transform its education system, with the goal of by widening students’ access to e-learning without being faced with spiralling IT costs and massive energy bills.

Unfortunately, it faced critical challenges that hindered the success of the reform, including lack of electricity and power usage, limited internet access and old IT systems. Moreover, access to computing facilities at schools was very poor. In fact, according to Government research, one computer was shared by 42 students on average. In some areas this ratio was even higher, with 500 students having to ‘share’ just one PC.

The Government wanted to address these inequalities in ICT access and increase computer usage country-wide.

After thoroughly considering all available options, the Ministry decided on NComputing’s X-series thin clients. The X-Series stood out as the most cost-effective solution, with the highest user density compared to other solutions on the market and lowest energy consumption. In addition, these virtual desktops were compatible with existing IT applications and were easy to maintain and manage.

The implementation of X-series thin clients across 40 computer labs enabled the Government to double student access to computing, whilst achieving a 75% reduction in energy use and lowering maintenance and IT management costs. By 2016, the Ministry of Education is planning to deploy NComputing virtual desktops across over 14,000 primary schools, 8,000 junior high schools and 450 senior high schools in Ghana.

To find more about this project, read the full case study here.