By Jean Fairbairn | EIFL Communications Manager
We have two great pieces news to celebrate the start of the New Year!
Firstly, the mobile library Hands-on Computer Classes project has achieved its best results yet. In 2019, the average pass rate for the subject ICT in the Basic Education Certificate Exam (B.E.C.E.) for children who took part in the classes was 92%.
Secondly, your support has laid the foundation for extension of hands-on computer skills classes to under-resourced schools in six more regions of Ghana.
The exam results achieved in 2019 continue the upward trend. In 2015, when the project started, the average pass rate in the subject ICT at B.E.C.E. level was just 45%; in 2016, in the schools where we worked, it increased to 65%; in 2017 to 81%, and in 2018 it was 85%. All the children who wrote the exam in 2019 had been taking part in the mobile libraries’ classes for three years, since Grade 1. They were able to build on their knowledge and practical skills year-by-year till Grade 3, when they sat for the B.E.C.E. Passing the B.E.C.E. is crucial because it is the exam that determines progress to secondary school.
These these remarkable results have inspired the Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communications to equip the remaining six mobile regional libraries operated by the Ghana Library Authority (GhLA) with laptop computers. The GhLA is now able to transform the project into a sustainable service that will be offered in 10 regions. These are the four regions that we’ve been working with - Ashanti, Upper East, Volta and Western - and six more, Brong-Ahafo, Central, Eastern, Greater Accra, Northern and Upper West.
Establishment of a sustainable service, in which ICT-equipped mobile libraries in 10 regions will travel to schools that do not have computers or internet connections to teach children practical ICT skills, means that we are able to close the project, and so this will be the last report from EIFL.
The six mobile libraries will start visiting schools in the first quarter of this year. In November last year, EIFL and GhLA trained librarians from the six additional regions to operate ICT-equipped mobile libraries; to plan and conduct training for schoolchildren, and to build partnerships with teachers and education officials. The trainers were librarians from Ashanti and Volta Regions with experience of conducting hands-on computer classes.
Mr Hayford Siaw, Acting Executive Director of the GhLA, is overjoyed with the outcomes of the project. He sent this message of thanks to our GlobalGiving donors: “You have helped to build the foundation for implementation of the project across our country. We could not have achieved this without you. Thank you!”
On behalf of everyone at EIFL, thank you for your donations and your loyalty to our project over the years. As a result of your support, thousands of children have progressed to secondary school. From there, they can go on to further study, employment and brighter futures. We are are confident that, led by the GhLA, the hands-on computer classes will continue to thrive and grow.
To see futher developments, follow the Ghana Library Authority on social media - Facebook, Twitter @ghanalibraries.
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