Africa

Ghanaian Teacher Earns Twitter Fame for Teaching IT to Kids Without Computers

The dedicated education professional even received an unexpected gift as a result of him becoming a social media sensation.
Sputnik

A teacher in the Ghanaian city of Kumasi earned admiration and respect of the Internet community for creative attempts to teach his students computer technology, despite the school's lack of computers.

The man, who was identified by the Quartz Africa as Richard Appiah Akoto(aka Owura Kwadwo), made a Facebook post with images of his information and computer technology (ICT) class.

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The photos showed Akoto using blackboard and colored chalks to draw a diagram of the Microsoft World program.

"Teaching of ICT in Ghana's school is very funny," he said in a Facebook post alongside the photos," the post read.

Apparently, despite not having any computers since 2011, Akoto's school still requires its students to pass the computer technology examination, as part of the curriculum, leaving it up to the heroic teacher to overcome the shortage of equipment.

"I love my students so have to do what will make them understand what [I] am teaching," Akoto told the Quartz.

"This is not my first time [of drawing] it. I have been doing it anytime I am in the classroom."

"I like posting pictures on Facebook so I just felt like [sharing it]. I didn't know it would get the attention of people like that," he said.

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The Internet community was quick to pick up on the story, sharing Akoto's original post thousands of times, instantly making him a Twitter celebrity.

In a rare instant of Internet fame actually meaning something in the real world, the dedicated teacher was noticed by the tech giant Microsoft, which promised to deliver computers to his school.

"Supporting teachers to enable digital transformation in education is at the core of what we do," Microsoft's twitter post read.

"We will equip Owura Kwadwo with a device from one of our partners, and access to our MCE program & free professional development resources on http://education.microsoft.com."

The Twitter community praised Akoto for going an extra mile for his students, despite the complex task of teaching IT with nothing but blackboard and chalk.

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