Turning Hope into Reality with Connect To Learn

23 January 2014
Content from a Premium Partner
Ericsson (Stockholm)
press release

A look back at the progress made at two schools in Ghana that have benefited from the Connect To Learn initiative.

In the spring of 2011 Connect To Learn performed its first ICT deployment in two secondary schools in the Bonsaaso Millennium Village project in Ghana. The two schools, Mansoman Senior High School and Adubia Senior High School serve as the main secondary schools for students living within the Bonsaaso project.

With approximately 1,000 students each, the schools are well run but suffer from a severe lack of funding and resources. Each class has up to 60 students and chalk and blackboards have been the only resources the teachers had. Fortunately the schools have very active parent-teacher associations that fund many of the school buildings including the very basic boarding facilities and improvements to basic classroom facilities.

Bonsaaso itself is located in the Amansie-West District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. It is a hot and humid tropical region and the project covers a population of some 35,000 living in isolated homes and villages separated from each other by thick rainforest.

Along with a small team of local Ericsson volunteers I visited both schools in the Spring of 2011 where we deployed a small number of netbooks and built Wi-Fi networks covering the school’s ICT rooms and main administrative blocks. We connected the devices to the best available mobile network which at the time was Airtel’s EDGE network. We quickly realized that one of the most important improvements we could deliver was to upgrade the network to 3G.

Before leaving we also provided some basic training to ensure that a small group of teachers could use the technology. On that first trip we met enthusiastic teachers like Sara Kwarteng who were very keen to start using ICT in the classroom, but had not had the opportunity before our intervention.

That spring the first Connect To Learn scholarships were allocated to both schools and on that trip I met some of the scholarship girls and I clearly remember how grateful they were to have received the chance to attend school and finish their secondary education. We made some short films of some of the girls, recording their hopes and aspirations. I clearly one particularly shy 16 year old called Ramatu who expressed her wish to be a nurse when she left school.

Since that Spring I have been back to Bonsaaso twice, with the last visit being just before Christmas. The progress that has been made is remarkable. The schools now have functioning ICT labs, each with 55 computers. and in one of the schools, Mansoman Senior High School, we have made a pilot deployment of interactive whiteboard technology.

We have made 3G upgrades to two nearby Airtel sites so both schools can get 3G connectivity. Teacher enthusiasm for using ICT is even higher than it was on my first visit and more and more teachers want to start bringing the technology into their classrooms.

On this latest trip we did some follow up interviews with some of the scholarship girls. We were lucky enough to be able to meet girls like Ramatu who have since graduated from Mansoman school thanks to the Connect To Learn scholarship that they received over the previous three years. Ramatu has fulfilled her dream and now works as a Community Health Worker in the Bonsaaso Millennium Village.

Paul Landers is Program Manager for Connect To Learn at Ericsson. He oversees the development and deployment of Ericsson’s ICT solutions in schools across Africa and in other regions of the world. The Connect to Learn project aims to increase student access to education globally, and builds on Ericsson’s commitment to assisting the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of universal education. With experience in both the public and private sector, Mr. Landers has a studied the potential and implementation of ICT in education for over two decades. He started his career as a public school teacher in Ireland focusing specifically on ICT use in primary schools and the development of teacher training programs. Since joining Ericsson in 1998, he has been deeply involved in the creation of corporate eLearning programs both within Ericsson and as a consultant for supporting business partners around the world.

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