A Ghanaian teacher’s resourceful use of a chalkboard to teach students with no access to a computer about ICT has caught the attention of Microsoft who have offered to help his class.
Richard Appiah Akoto drew a detailed diagram of the Microsoft Word processor for the lesson at his rural school in the Ashanti Region of south Ghana. The 33-year-old’s students are seen copying the diagram into their notebooks in the post which has been widely shared online.
“Teaching of ICT in Ghana’s school is very funny,” joked Akoto, known by his nickname Owura Kwadwo Hottish on Facebook, in a post.
“I love [my] students so have to do [what] will make them understand [what I] am teaching.”
Quartz Africa reports the school have had no computers since 2011, despite ICT forming part of the school curriculum and students being required to pass an exam on the subject to progress to high school.
Rebecca Enonchong, a tech entrepreneur from Cameroon, shared the image with Microsoft Africa on Twitter asking if they could provide the class with some computers.
“Hey @MicrosoftAfrica, he’s teaching MS Word on a blackboard. Surely you can get him some proper resources,” she tweeted.
Microsoft Africa responded by promising to provide a computer to the teacher and access to free professional development resources.
“Supporting teachers to enable digital transformation in education is at the core of what we do,” responded the tech giant.
A 2015 study into the implementation of ICT learning in Ghanaian secondary schools found disparities in technology use among urban and rural school students. The report, published in the journal Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, found there provide better technology resources for students.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk
