‘Knowledge is Power for Service’: ICT at Morning Star School in Ghana

The visit was part of a 4-day Cross Country Learning Event (CCLE) organised by IICD and Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSci). It was designed to give CCLE participants some insights into how ICTs are being integrated into the school curriculum in Ghana. Of course, as in most countries, the situation varies from school to school depending on several different factors: whether the schools are in urban or rural areas, whether they are private establishments or government-owned; whether the school principal and administrator are pro-ICT or unconvinced of its value. 

In Morning Star’s case, the school is a private establishment with 1100 pupils, two ICT teachers and 88 instructional staff. There are two computer labs at the school: one for primary school children and one for senior students. Each lab has 26 computers that run on Microsoft Windows. The pupils go to the labs at set times as part of the normal timetable.

Developing local content

With regard to developing local content, some of the science teachers at Morning Star have already begun preparing their own modules for use in the classroom. Ms Abena Kwakyi, the school’s headmistress who warmly welcomed the visitors, added that the school intends to continue down this road as, aside from helping Morning Star’s teachers to improve their ICT skills, it will also be cost-effective in the long run. At the moment, the school has to buy in a lot of CD ROMS from outside and these are quite expensive. Another positive development relating to local content is that Ghana’s Ministry of Education is also putting together some educational CD ROMS to complement the curriculum, although they are not yet ready.

Morning Star’s approach towards ICT

As is the case in many schools, it would appear at first glance that Morning School began by focussing squarely on the needs of its students: the Computer Labs were set up for their benefit and subsequently staffed with specialist IT teachers. This differs from IICD’s approach, where the focus is on enhancing the computer skills of all the teachers in order to catalyse the integration of ICT across the entire syllabus. Not only does IICD’s approach enable the teachers to show how different ICT applications can be used to enhance different subjects, it also serves to complement and strengthen the work of the IT teachers by demonstrating how ICTs can be used in practice. For example, in Burkina Faso, short videos are now made of chemistry experiments and shown to secondary school students: this saves on preparation time as well as costs as there are often insufficient funds to allow students in a school to continuously repeat the same experiment.

Ms Abena Kwakyi summed up Morning Star’s approach towards ICT, indicating that there is now a shift towards placing a greater emphasis on training the teachers to use ICTs:

“The children need to understand what the computer can do, what its potential is. They have learned keyboarding, software, how to do research, etc  By the time they leave Morning Star they should be able to do PowerPoint presentations, scan pictures, make spreadsheets, etc. We also need to find out what’s happening across the borders. Teachers can use the Internet to make reports. Students have even been used to train the teachers – with success.”

‘Children must have a competitive edge to stay alive…’

Morning Star, which was set up over 40 years ago, also has the good fortune to be run by someone with an open mind towards ICT in general and a firm grasp of the benefits it can bring to future generations. As Ms Abena Kwakyi explained:

“If you are an educator and you want to do things well you must go along with developments in the sector. For example, if you go to a hospital you want to know who is the best doctor and if he or she can help you. Children must have a competitive edge to stay alive, to keep up with their peers in Europe and the USA. If you are going to a lesson you want to be safe in the knowledge that your teacher is the very best. For this reason, we got a bank loan and imported all our computers from the United Kingdom: we wanted to give the children the very best. We could have folded our arms and simply said ‘It’s too expensive’. However, we believe we owe it to the children.”

Global Teenager Project (Ghana)

The school also takes part in the Global Teenager Project Ghana which is coordinated by Mr Ebenezer Malcolm of Rescue Mission Ghana. Ms Abena Kwakyi described some of the benefits of being involved in GTP Ghana:

“Training provided through the GTP has also helped us. Teachers are also encouraged to follow other ICT courses. Ebenezer Malcolm and the GTP team have kept us in the picture.”

Using ICT to save the Rain Forests

As one little girl at Morning Star also observed, ICTs have many uses, even saving the  environment:

“If you grow an ICT programme it would be one way to save the Rain Forests as less paper would be used.”

IICD Panel Discussion at eLearning Africa Conference

Inspired by discussions with students and staff at Morning Star, especially Ms Abena Kwakyi’s visionary approach and infectious optimism, IICD invited Ms Abena Kwakyi to take part in a Panel Discussion it was chairing later that week at the eLearning Africa Conference. The subject of the Panel Discussion was very fitting: ‘Using ICT to develop local content in secondary schools and other educational establishments: voices from the front line’.

At the end of our visit, Ms Abena Kwakyi neatly summed up the school’s philosophy with regard to ICT:

“The costs are high because the computers are on all day. But the children are worth it and we do our best to keep the programme going.”

She will remain etched on our memory as an excellent role model of a dynamic and supportive school principal who is really helping to make ICT happen in her school and inspiring others to do the same.