IT for Children Interview

Equal Rights to Education

In Ghana, there is mandatory IT education in schools, but access to computers is scarce. 

How do you teach a child IT education without using a computer? 

In today’s episode, our guest Torsten Kjellgren from IT For Children tells Great.com how he visitedisited a school in Ghana, where a teacher was trying to explain how Excel works to a class of 12-year-old pupils without using a computer. 

Torsten thought it was absurd that children were supposed to learn about Excel from looking into a textbook. So in 2015, he started to collect laptops from Sweden to build a school for IT education in Ghana. 4 years later, almostover 2000 children haved gotten free IT education through IT for Children. 

On the surface, it might look like these IT classes are just like any other subject in school. But what Torsten learned, was that this education represents something much bigger. 

When a child in Ghana goes to school, that child is expected to be silent, not make mistakes and accept everything that teachers are telling them. To uphold this discipline, the teachers are equipped with a cane to beat the child if he or she gives the wrong answer. 

Violence is still a reality in many regular schools in Ghana, but in the two IT for Children academy schools in the villages of Busua and Dixcove, beating a child has been forbidden from day one. Children are being taught to be self-reflective, express if they don’t know the answer and to search the internet to fact check the information they are given. 

Listen to the full 20min interview, where Torsten explains how they have managed to allow girls to participate in IT education - which is not an easy task in Ghana where strong hierarchical structures are working against girl’s rights to education. 

Torsten believes it is a Human Right to have access to information. If you also believe in Equal Rights to Education it doesn’t cost more than 10 dollars per month to make a substantial difference. 

Want to make sure that support to children completing their education, and pursuing their dreams is provided? Then become a monthly donor and donate 10 dollars.

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