By Jean Fairbairn | EIFL Communications Manager
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.
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