PROJECTS ABROAD SUPPORTS ICT EDUCATION

Projects Abroad runs an ICT program that offers volunteers the opportunity to visit schools around the country and help students develop their computer skills.

The project has proven to be quite popular, with 100 volunteers having already participated since January.

Despite its popularity there are a number of issues associated with the program, a major one being lack of resources.

Although IT is, part of the national curriculum many schools, particularly within the smaller regions and communities only have blackboards as a teaching resource. According To Grant Appiah, Project Abroad co-coordinator for the Central Region, most schools are fortunate to have a single computer; some do not even have electricity.

This is particularly true in public schools in which a lack of resources means their education is greatly disadvantaged.

Schools try to teach IT as best as they can but often it is only theory and when it actually comes down to practicing computer skills, a majority of students lacks any knowledge or confidence in what is quickly becoming globally recognized as a vital skill. Often the subject is altogether overlooked.

During the recent school holidays, Grant Appiah came up with an initiative to hold a specialist IT program, which encouraged students to take some time out from their holidays to participate in a computer skills workshop.

The first step in putting this plan into action, was finding a space with the necessary resources to hold the IT workshops. Grant and the Projects abroad team made a partnership with FODACH Foundation, a humanitarian organization that exists to further the development of Ghanaian youth, and were then able to get their hands on a space once used as an internet caféwith 12 computers.

Letters were sent out to schools in 3 communities in Abura, Kakumado and Essuekyir. The program was targeted at students aged around 10 to 15 or 16 and was to run from the 16th of April to the 2nd of May.

George Derhitoee a High school teacher from Los Angeles in the United State of America joined the Projects Abroad IT program in Cape Coast fresh from 4 months in Sri Lanka where he had been involved in a similar program with Projects Abroad. Georges experience both with volunteering and as a teacher made him the ideal candidate for the specialist holiday program. According to Grant George basically pioneered the project. His role involved everything thing from writing the lesson plans to supervising the other three volunteers who also helped with the workshops.

The program had a great first response with 200 plus students signing up for the program initially. During the actual program, the workshops had about 60 participants all up, with around 40- 45 sticking attending consistently and actually completing the program.

According to Grant Appiah the Regional Coordinator, the idea of the project was not just to teach IT to the students but to engage them and encourage them with their learning.

Of course there were a few complications involved in the execution of the IT workshop. Technical issues were somewhat of an inconvenience at times but the main challenge overall was only having 12 computers with up to 60 kids, the students had to make do with sharing, taking turns to observe and actually operate the machine throughout the workshop.

Despite the difficulties, Appiah believes the kids have responded really well, a test completed at the end of the course produced mostly average and some above average scores. Considering that, according to George, many of the students had never used a computer before; this is a very positive outcome.

To further the success of this IT program, Mr. Appiah noted that the project needs commitment from the community.

The schools have the responsibility to make the kids aware of the program, and encourage them to participate. Families must also allow their children to be involved in this program for the benefit of their education.

As this project is being funded wholly by projects abroad and is completely non-profitable, he disclosed that donations of resources from institutions within the community would be extremely beneficially to the cause.

Overall, Mr. Appiah believes the project was quite successful and is hoping to continue the program with another workshop taking place throughout August.