Computers for Education in Northern Ghana

Ghana's Northern Region has the lowest student per computer ratio of 50 students per computer, according to ICT Readiness index for Ghana 2010. In the school that this project targets, this is even lower with about 1 computer for 300 students. This means that students never get the opportunity to really learn how to use computers in all of their courses and miss out on a lot of educational resources. In turn this means that in the Northern Region, it is very hard for students to go to senior high school. With better access to educational information by using computers, students increase their chances of going to senior high school and finding a good job after.

Current status

This project is currently being developed. If funded, the planning is:
First quarter: procurement of equipment and installation of the computer in the school and the training centre
Second quarter: training teachers via workshops
Third quarter: teachers train students how to work with the computers in: biology, science, mathematics, English, history, geography and more.
Fourth quarter: Evaluation of the project and possibility to roll out to more schools.

Teacher trainings will be done by local partner Savana Signatures in close collaboration with IICD. IICD will monitor the progress and provides technical advice.

The participating school will also be linked to an education network. This allows them to meet other schools through face to face meetings and teacher fora. The schools will also be connected with an overarching programme that is developed by the Connect4Change consortium and its members . In Connect for Change during the first phase 9 other schools participate in the Education programme in collaboration with Edukans. The programme will increase the chances of the students of employability and to continue with further educaton. There is limited access to Senior High School, depending on your marks and available funding.

Educational resources will be stored offline and include programs such as:
- offline Wikipedia
- 20 gigabyte of local stored material such as science and mathemetics information
- a locally stored educational method called laearning-by-ear that teaches life skills through radio broadcasts taped in Africa

Target groups are: students, teachers and school administrators. The students will use computers in all of their classes. teachers are trained in how to use these computers and explain this to their students. School administrators also benefit. They learn how to digitally enter data which decrease the chances of any errors in the administration.

- Increase the amount of computers in Basic and Junior High School in Savelugu District in Northern Ghana
- Providing children with free on- and offline resources to improve their learning
- Increase the computer (teaching) skills of teachers knowledge to teach.
- Digitise school information to make it easier to send reports to government, NGOs and others.

Goals

• 20 teachers trained
• 1000 students work with computers in their classes
• 6 computers for the school
• 6 additional computers for an ICT Teacher Training Lab
• 4 administrators trained

Because parents pay for junior high school education of their children, it means that schools will increase their income if schools attract more students. By using computers in their classes, students increase their skills and their chances to go to senior high school. This leads to more parents wanting to place their children in the school.

At Savana Signatures ICT Training Centre more teachers could be trained with the equipment provided in this project to make them more sustainable for the future. This would mean that eventually a second school that will reach another 1000 students can be added to the project.

Students also benefit financially in the long term. By using more resources and learning how to use a computer, they increase their chances of getting a good job after school.