In recent days, three images went viral at lightning speed. They show teacher Richard Appiah Akoto preparing his students for an ICT (information and communication technologies) exam that includes a section on word processors. But the most striking thing is that in the images there isn't a single computer in sight, and the teacher is drawing the Word interface on the blackboard. If that isn't dedication, I don't know what is.
In a world infected by the constant waste of technology by planned obsolescence and its terrible consequences on the environment, it makes us feel a lot of frustration (and a bit of anger) to know that there are thousands of institutions around the world without the basic resources to teach computing properly. When I say 'resources,' that also includes electricity and connectivity, but instead of complaining endlessly about these shortcomings, some people out there simply adapt, and do what they can with what they have. One of those people is Ghanaian teacher Richard Appiah Akoto, who teaches ICT at the "Betenase M/A Junior High School" in Sekyedumase, two and a half hours from the city of Kumasi.
As you can see from these photos, ICT classes require the teacher to draw the interfaces of the programs he needs to explain to his students, simply because the school has not had computers since 2011. As if that weren't enough, the 14- and 15-year-old students must pass a national exam that gives them access to secondary school, and computing is one of the subjects. The teacher admitted that it is not the first time he has drawn the interface, and he only shared the images because he likes posting photos on Facebook. After several celebrities joined the viral spread of Professor Akoto, Microsoft Africa promised to send him a device and give him access to the MCE program.
However, that is just a stopgap. The teacher has a personal laptop, but he cannot use it in class because the official curriculum is based on desktop computers, including how to connect the parts and boot it correctly (whereas a laptop reduces to pressing a button). In other words, the written exam requires students to memorize the curriculum, without real experience in front of a computer. We need to see more cases like that of Professor Akoto, and not let them fade away after the viral moment.
