Hands-on computer classes for 1,800 Ghana children

Using email to write to family members living abroad; being able to help others to connect to the internet on mobile phones, and applying to study at colleges that only accept online applications.

These are activities that people in developed countries take for granted - but for children in Ghana, they are new and special skills. They are the top three benefits of the EIFL Hands-on Computer Classes project listed by children at Maakro D/A Junior High School, in Ashanti Region, in a short survey.

“Thank you for your support. This project is great - for the children who are gaining practical skills, and for the teachers who no longer have to teach children about computers in the abstract,” said Mr Ofosu Frimpong, Mobile Regional Librarian in Ashanti Region, who conducted the survey on 26 May 2017.

The project got off to a good start this year. From January to April, your donations, US$1,748, enabled the four mobile regional libraries in Ashanti, Upper East, Volta and Western regions to conduct 200 computer classes for over 2,800 children at 17 under-resourced junior high schools. This is over 1,000 more than the project’s goal of reaching 1,800 children.

The mobile libraries take solar-charged laptop computers pre-loaded with e-books and e-resources related to the school curriculum, and modem internet connections, to under-resourced schools, to give children vital hands-on computer and internet skills and access to learning materials which the schools cannot provide.

The children benefiting from the classes are in grades 1, 2 and 3. For grade 3, the libraries’ classes are especially important, because at the end of grade 3, children write the Basic Education Certificate Exam, which determines progress to secondary school. Children who complete secondary school have the potential to enter further education and to get better jobs. For children in grades 1 and 2, the classes are valuable building blocks for the future.

Links:

• Watch our video to see hands-on computer classes in action.

Children, their parents, teachers and headmasters are overjoyed with the exam results achieved with the help of the Hands-on Computer Classes project. So are the regional public librarians who travelled hundreds of kilometers on rough and dusty roads every week to offer thousands of children practical computer and internet classes.

The project has contributed to a remarkable 20% average increase in the information and communications technology (ICT) exam pass rate at 25 under-resourced schools in four regions of Ghana (Ashanti, Western, Upper East and Volta).

With your support, EIFL was able to equip library vans with laptop computers and modem internet, projectors, screens and solar panels to charge the equipment. The equipment was used in practical computer classes and for study in other subjects, like English and mathematics.

To watch EIFL’s video about the project, click here: http://bit.ly/2m7gMQC

The project has more than succeeded in its aim of helping children attending schools that do not have computers, internet connections or electricity to pass their ICT exams:

• In less than a year the project taught 3,800 children in grades 1, 2 and 3 at the 25 schools to use computers and the internet. This is more than double the number of children the libraries originally planned to reach.
• The hands-on classes increased the 2016 ICT exam pass rate to 65% - that is 20% more than in 2015.
• The hands-on classes helped over 700 children in Grade 3 to pass ICT in the Basic Education Certificate Exam - the exam that determines progress to secondary school.

Esther, who dreams of being a television news presenter when she leaves school, and her friend Herbert, who wants to be a doctor, are two of the lucky children who passed the ICT exam. “The computers and internet helped me pass the ICT exam, and other subjects,” said Esther. “The computers are going to help me do research on diseases and how to solve them,” said Herbert.

Thanks to your support, Esther and Herbert are now proud secondary school students - and one step closer to achieving their dreams.