Meet the island teacher who has inspired his students to create their own cardboard computers

His story starts like the ones of many public service workers who are posted to remote, and sometimes unreachable communities of the country to serve the country with the professions they were trained for. However, Godfred Nyarko, a primary school teacher at the Addaekrom DA Primary School in the Eastern Region of Ghana said all it took him to have a change of heart about this supposed ‘punishment,’ was an experience on a boat. Speaking to Nana Tea of 'Nana Tea Was Here Some' on YouTube, the teacher said that Addaekrom is his first posting since he completed training college, although he is originally from Nkawkaw. “I was posted here in 2019. I’m actually from Nkawkaw, Kwahu, and I went to school at Kibi Presby Training College. So, after training college, I was posted here. The first time I heard it was an island, that was when I was scared but when I was on the boat, I felt nothing; I felt normal, even the breeze, you’ll just enjoy it,” he said. Narrating the circumstances that led to how he came to create cardboard computers for his pupils, Godfred Nyarko said that whenever his headmaster, who was the one who usually taught the students the subject of computing, encountered problems, he always sent for him. By and by, he also got to take the children through some lessons and that was when he was compelled to improvise for them. He told Nana Tea that recognising the challenge with electricity that was already predominant in the community, he became even more confident that using the cardboard idea was the right one for the children. He added that with time, the children were able to make their own cardboard computers and have loved using them. “Computing is one subject that must be taught in all primary schools and so you see, sometimes, we don’t have electricity and we see that as a challenge teaching computing as a subject. So, I decided to start. Actually, the headmaster is the one who has been handling the class and sometimes, when he finds a difficulty with something, he calls me. “I was trying to teach the introduction to computing and I came up with the idea that I had to get something that can make the children feel the computer itself even though it’s not around and will make them understand it much better… so I had to come up with these cardboard computers and they even enjoy it. I made one myself and give it to them to recreate,” he said. Find out even more from the interview below: Watch the latest episode of The Lowdown below: You can also watch this episode of People & Places on GhanaWeb TV: AE/WA