Hiking club presents computers to Obosomase Methodist Basic School

The Tsenku Hiking Club at Obosomase in the Akuapem North Municipality in the Eastern Region has presented 21 new computers and accessories to the Obosomase Methodist Basic School.

The items valued at GH¢160,000 are to improve teaching and learning of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and to alleviate the challenge of the teaching of the subject in the school.

The school in 2015 put up an ICT laboratory but there was no such equipment until the Tsenku Hiking Club came to the rescue to change the narrative.

Presentation

Making the presentation to the school last Friday, the leader of the club, Andrew Daniels, said during the COVID-19 period in 2019, the group handed over 90 pieces of furniture, including desks and chairs, to the school.

That, he said was in response to the headmistress' request for a supply of furniture to the school.

He said the club was able to fund the purchase of the items through a charity trip from Dansoman in Accra to Obosomase.

Mr Daniels said the group, inspired by the love for the school decided to give back to society, especially the Obosomase school, where most of their hiking take place.

He told the gathering that it was during the group's charity walk that they met a supplier of computers, who assured them of the items and accessories, adding that the supplier would repair the computers free of charge when they became faulty.

An ICT teacher, Emmanuel Abboah Offei, who received the items on behalf of the school, said previously, teachers and pupils of the school were handicapped when it came to the teaching and learning of ICT.

That, he said, was because teachers had to carry their own computers from Mampong to Obosomase, a distance of about seven kilometres daily, a situation he described as very challenging.

Mr Offei indicated that he usually drew the computer components on the board for the pupils to learn, and that situation had negatively affected their performance in the ICT subject, particularly at the Basic Education Certificate Examination because the practical aspect was not available.

Challenges in ICT

The Head teacher of the school, Joana Ofori Manteaw, said the school encountered numerous challenges when it came to the teaching and learning of ICT.

She was of the view that the intervention of the Tsenku Hiking Club would improve the teaching and learning of ICT to enable the pupils to perform creditably in class and at the BECE.

She called on non-governmental organisations to come to the aid of the school to renovate its facilities.  

A parent, Abigail Asare, who was happy about the presentation, told the Daily Graphic that the computers made available to the pupils would widen their horizon because of the present computer age.

Some of the pupils told the Daily Graphic that the computers provided would help them study the ICT subject after many years of deprivation.