Pupils of Nana Avo-Nwiah Basic School use stones as computer mouse to learn ICT

Despite the fact that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an examinable subject in Ghana’s education curriculum, pupils of Nana Avo-Nwiah Basic School, a suburb of Tikobo Number Two in the Jomoro Municipality of the Western Region, have had to endure ICT lessons without a practical feel of computers.

Nana Avo-Nwiah M/A Basic School was established as a private school but was absorbed by the Government of Ghana in 2016 and since then, pupils have been using stones as computer mouse in learning the subject.

An ICT teacher in the classroom at the time of Skyy Power FM’s visit, pleaded not to be captured on camera but described the situation as very bad.

He said he does not have a laptop to be used to teach the pupils.

Daniel Kaku however, learnt that as a result of the situation, very bad results in ICT are often derived from the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) level.

In an interview with the Girl’s Prefect of Nana Avo-Nwiah Junior High School, Deborah Kaajo revealed that they have not seen a computer before.

“We don’t know how a computer looks like or mouse. We have been using a stone to replace a mouse”, she said.

She said the world is now a computer world and there was the need for every school child to have access to ICT tools.

She also said the situation is affecting their academic performance.

Deborah Kaajo took the opportunity to plead with government and other benevolent organizations to support them computers.

“Now this world has been turned into a technological world, so we need some of the computers and we want the government to build a computer lab for us so that we can practice some

Other schools have a lot and they have been using them to learn and as for us we don’t know what a computer is, so we are pleading if someone can support us. We need support, we need lot of things, our school is in difficulties so we want everyone to help us so that we can learn and feel comfortable”, she bemoaned.

Deborah Kaajo who had dreamt to become a medical doctor in future, said the situation could affect her dream.

“I want to be a doctor in future. Without a computer I can’t even be a doctor so how can a doctor does not know how to use a computer, how can I care for my country. I want to prevent and protect lives but I don’t have a computer to learn, so in this area too we produce cocoa here and we are all part of Ghana so we need support. This place too we produce rubber, everything is here, these resources are supporting government so we also need support…”, she concluded.

Tikobo Number Two Forest Junction where the school is situated, is endowed with cash crops such as cocoa, rubber, coconut among other.