Computers for Ghanaian Schools

    

It took nearly a year to organise but in October 2011 200 PCs and 16 laptops from 'Computers for Africa' were successfully delivered to the busy port of Tema in Ghana. In a project funded by SEPIA, these computers were then collected by teachers and delivered to a range of schools within the Eastern Region of Ghana. In many of the schools these were the first computers the children had ever seen and this created great excitement for both teaching staff and the school children. ICT has been a compulsory part of the Ghanaian teaching syllabus since 2009 but until now these lessons have been purely theoretical. Mr Ebenezer Amoh, teacher at New Tafo Methodist Junior High School (JHS) commented "for our children these computers will make such a difference; not only in lessons but also when the go out to work. Computer skills are in great demand in Ghana and this will mean that our children will be able to compete for jobs they could only have dreamed of before. It will help them and their families and we all want to say a huge thank you to SEPIA."

The computers were divided up to allow each school to receive 20 PCs, which included one higher spec computer for the classroom teacher. In four schools these were set up straight away in secure ICT rooms with a qualified teacher and pupils could use them straight away. One school in Asafo located the computers in the Community Library, which previously had to close due to lack of funds, so that more than one school could benefit from using them. In the other schools it was decided that the teaching staff needed to be fully trained in how to use them and look after them within a classroom environment first, by their ICT teacher, before they would then be used by the children. It is planned that by the beginning of 2012 all 200 PCs will be used as part of the teaching and learning process in these schools.

The 16 laptops were allocated to teacher from New Tafo Methodist JHS and Juliet Johnston JHS in New Tafo to help them with their own professional development and also for use within the classrooms.

We have been working with schools in the Eastern Region of Ghana since 2004 and therefore the recipient schools were selected on the basis of previous collaborative work. We have now also established a working relationship with the Regional Government Inspector of Schools for this area and this also helped to inform the choices made.

In November we got the chance to go back to Ghana to see the computers for ourselves and the wonderful welcome we received at every school told us that this was worth all the effort.

See this on the Computers for Africa web site at http://www.computers4africa.org.uk/index.php/news.html or read a bit more about this in our latest newsletter.

  

Michael Clarke, SEPIA director, discussing the new computers with Mr Ebenezer Amoh at New Tafo Methodist JHS
 

Official handover of computers at Asafo Community Library to the Asafo Presbyterian JHS and Primary School
 

Computers set up and ready at Mid Tafo Presbyterian JHS
   
 
 

Pupils at Asafo Presbyterian JHS being shown how the use the new computers.