Global Host Project assists Duakor community with a computer centre

The Manager of the Central Region Catholic Education Unit, Mrs Doris Eshun, on Tuesday called on NGOs and the government to consider giving teachers training in computer studies to enhance quality delivery.

She said though it is laudable to introduce ICT in the school curriculum, it was unfortunate that teachers who were supposed to teach the subject have very little knowledge on the subject thereby making it very difficult to effectively teach it.

Mrs Eshun said this when she inaugurated a computer centre donated by Global Host Project, an NGO, to the Duakor Catholic Primary and Junior High schools at Duakor, a settler fishing community near the University of Cape Coast.

The centre, which has five laptops and two desktop computers, was jointly built by GHP and Mr. Sean and Ms Connie Bashaw, volunteers with Global Host Project at the cost of $6,000.00.

Mrs Eshun also appealed to the government and district assemblies to connect rural schools to the national electricity grid or provide such schools with solar panels to enable them make use of their computer centres, stressing that, most rural schools have computers but could not use them due to the lack of electricity.

She appealed to school authorities to source some funds to enable them purchase more computers to meet the demands of the school.

Ms Nicole Michelle Beauchamp, Executive Director of GHP, commended the chiefs and people of Duakor for their support which made it possible for GHP to build the centre and urged the students to take advantage of the computers to improve upon their technology skills.

Mr. Odua Kwesi Sampson, Country Director of GHP said the lack of facilities for effective teaching of ICT in basic schools had hindered the development of ICT education and that in most cases, teachers and pupils could not upgrade their skills because the facilities for the subjects were in adequate or nonexistent.

Mr. Ebenezer Pittston, the head teacher of the schools, thanked GHP for the donation and promised that the computers would be put to good use since they would be shared with schools in the surrounding communities like Okyese, Ahenborboi and Abakam.**