There is a teacher from Kumasi, Ghana who is currently the talk of Twitter right now. He started trending, or rather a picture of him drawing a diagram of Microsoft World program on a chalkboard (blackboard), went viral.
The teacher, identified by Quartz Africa as Richard Appiah Akoto says, “I love my students so have to do what will make them understand what [I] am teaching.”
The school where Mr. Akoto teaches did not have not even a single computer since 2011, but the teenage students are required to sit for an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) exam to progress to high school.
This teacher reminds me of a school, in Kano, where we found out (must have been around 2005) that students were introduced to the computer keyboard through photocopies of actual keyboards. Yes, they did ASDF ;LKJ on paper! Some teachers bend the “IM” out of impossible, really.
— ‘Gbénga Sèsan (@gbengasesan) February 26, 2018
The level of dedication shown by Mr. Akoto goes beyond love for a paycheck at the end of the month. It shows genuine concern and a desire to impact ICT knowledge to his students, and despite the far from perfect classroom condition, Mr. Akoto goes the extra mile [understatement] to draw diagrams of the various program he is teaching in his lesson.
Look at a program like Microsoft Word, with all the rich GUI features it has, then think about how you can draw a diagram of it on the chalkboard. You have to be very dedicated to your cause to go the extra mile this teacher has gone.
When a picture of Mr. Akoto hit the internet sometime in mid-February, it spread like a lit matchstick thrown to a petrol spill on the tarmac. Social media was ablaze with people commending his dedication to his work.
In a statement to Quartz, Mr. Akoto said: “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.”
Last Sunday, renowned engineer Rebecca Enonchong tweeted out to Microsoft Africa letting them know someone is teaching students who could potentially become their future customers, about their product, but without actually having access to it.
This picture has been circulating on web. Does anyone know what country? This teacher is my hero. I want to find him. #TeachingIsAVocation pic.twitter.com/k7d0ysKrDj
— Rebecca Enonchong (@africatechie) February 25, 2018
Hey @MicrosoftAfrica, he’s teaching MS Word on a blackboard. Surely you can get him some proper resources. https://t.co/u8N3eXguXS
— Rebecca Enonchong (@africatechie) February 25, 2018
Enonchong finished by stressing, “Surely, you can get him some proper resources.”
Come Tuesday, Microsoft Africa responded to the tweet by pledging to send Mr. Akoto a computer and grant him access to its educational materials.
Supporting teachers to enable digital transformation in education is at the core of what we do. We will equip Owura Kwadwo with a device from one of our partners, and access to our MCE program & free professional development resources on https://t.co/dJ6loRUOdg
— Microsoft Africa (@MicrosoftAfrica) February 27, 2018
This also goes to show the power of social media. Although the lack of proper teaching facilities at the school is a symptom of serious socio-economic shortcomings by the government of Ghana, the finding of alternative solutions via social media only goes to show how technology can expedite development.