By Nicholas Osei-Wusu
A former President of the Ghana Medical Association, GMA, Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei, has appealed for the support of philanthropists and corporate bodies to come to the aid of basic schools at Nintin in the Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti region with computers and accessories for the promotion of the study of Computing among the pupils.
Computing has now become an examinable subject at the basic school level, including the Basic Education Certificate Examination (B.E.C.E.), making it imperative for basic school pupils to be familiar with computers, including the physical parts or hardware of it to ensure their better understanding of the subject.
However, for pupils of all three basic schools at Nintin, though Computing is taught and learnt at school, access to the machine has become a major setback to their theory and practicality of the subject.
It is to address the concerns of the teachers, pupils, and parents that an opinion leader of the town, Adu Asare, recently initiated steps to provide a Computer laboratory through an appeal to citizens and friends resident outside the community.
The effort has contributed to the setting up of an I.C.T. Laboratory being hosted by the local Roman Catholic Primary with a handful of donated second-hand desktop computers in a small room being a converted office.
During a visit by GBCNews to the laboratory, it was observed that most of the few computers donated for the establishment of the facility have become unusable and therefore sidelined.
This is what caused the former President of the G.M.A., Dr. Kwabena Opoku Adusei, who is now the Director of the College of Health and Wellbeing at Kintampo, to donate two brand new desktop computers and their accessories to support the Centre.
Dr. Opoku Adusei, who is also a native of Nintin, promised to support an expansion of the computer laboratory to accommodate more computers to optimally serve its purpose and therefore urged management of the facility to initiate steps to open up the centre.
He also appealed to not only citizens of the town but also philanthropic individuals and corporate organisations to come to the aid of the pupils.
The Opinion Leader, Nana Adu Asare, himself a retired teacher who initiated the establishment of the Computer Laboratory, received the two new computers on behalf of the beneficiary schools, thanking Dr. Opoku Adusei for his continuous assistance towards the development of the town over the years.
According to him, the donor has always responded positively to appeals for communal support whenever there has been the need.
Nana Adu Asare explained that his desire to help set up the computer laboratory has been necessitated by not just the introduction of the study of ICT but also as an examinable subject in basic schools as part of Ghana’s quest to adapt to the advancement of technology in the world.
He also appealed to the citizens of Nitin to contribute toward the worthy cause.
The Head Teacher of the Nintin R/C Primary School, Sadick Nsiah, disclosed that the Computer Laboratory serves all the primary and junior high schools in the town, which have been resorting to only theories of the subject over the years. They access the facility on a rotation basis with a unified timetable.
Mr. Nsiah noted that the centre, though recently set up to improve the situation, is unable to provide the full intended benefit of its establishment because it is too small with just a handful of second-hand computers to accept the relatively larger class sizes of pupils.
The situation, the Head Teacher noted, is defeating the ultimate purpose for providing the centre and therefore also appealed for expansion of the facility with more computers.
Mr. Nsiah also thanked Dr. Opoku Adusei for his commitment to formal education provision not only at the local R/C Primary, but also at the schools in the town and urged him to continue to do more for the current generation and posterity.
