How are TESSA materials helping unqualified teachers in rural Northern Ghana?

Unqualified volunteer teachers in rural Northern Ghana teach large classes with virtually no resources, training or pay. Charlotte Cashman (Primary school teacher and VSO Volunteer, Ghana 2009-10) met many of these teachers in the West Mamprusi District and resolved to help. In 2010 she and Michael Stark (Head of a UK Government overseas volunteering project and Trustee of Educators International) brought together staff from the UK Department for Education, the Open University, and Alhaj Mohammed Haroon, West Mamprusi District Director of Education and Commonwealth Fellow 2010 at a seminar hosted by DFE in London, and the need was recognised.



In 2012 the DfE started disposing of under-desk computers, as part of a move to cost-effective ‘cloud’ computing. What if some of these computers could be loaded with TESSA materials and sent to Northern Ghana to help the volunteer teachers?

 

This innovative idea became reality in October 2012. The Computers2Ghana project was initiated with the following objectives

 

• To provide Computer Centres in remote communities across West Mamprusi District

• To train teachers in ICT and basic computer maintenance, and improve the computer skills of other adults in the communities of West Mamprusi

• To enable more unqualified teachers, especially distance learners, to access TESSA and other modern materials, and to achieve qualified teacher status.

• To enable teachers to prepare students for the now compulsory Information and Communication Technology  (ICT) curriculum and learn hands-on by using an actual computer

• To prepare teachers and hence students to become global citizens with access to information and increased job opportunities.

 

The computers, pre- loaded with TESSA materials, are being branded with a “TESSA INSIDE” sticker which will alert any new user to the fact that the TESSA materials are loaded on the hard drive and they can access them even without using the internet. All other computers in the district will receive this same treatment.

 

What made the project possible.

The Department for Education computers are released to DfE’s contractor, Northern Realisations Ltd, who cleanse the data. Dell Computers agreed to pay for shipment. Vodafone Ghana agreed to connect these 100 workstations to the internet, free.  The Ghana Education Service assisted with in country transportation and fuel. The Open University provided the TESSA training software. 

 

The Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication (GIFEC), Prof Jophus Anamuah-Mensah (TESSA Executive Chair) and VSO volunteers are helping with training. Previous users of the computers at the DFE are sponsoring individual computers-www.justgiving.com/computers2ghana.

 

 

Implementation

The project is co-ordinated in West Mamprusi by Mahama Ramzie Mashood, ICT Pupil Teacher, Project Manager Computers2Ghana, under the leadership of the District Director of Education, Alhaj Mohammed Haroon, following up on the work Charlotte undertook with them to introduce ICT clubs in West Mamprusi in 2009.

 

It has been exciting to see schools in remote areas funding their own telegraph poles ready to connect to mains electricity because ’we do not want to be left behind’. In Guabuliga a computer centre was built in readiness for these former DfE computers to be used in this remote village.

 

Once the teachers are sufficiently prepared they will send emails back to the sponsors in the UK telling them what difference their new skills and the ready access to TESSA materials is making. 

Our hope is that this will in turn improve not only their life chances but also those of their students.

 

For more information see

 

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