Multi-targeted rural ICT project in Ho ends

A year-long multi-targeted ICT access school project, that trained beneficiaries to use information retrieval skills to reorient farming and trading businesses in rural communities in  Ho Municipality has ended.

Two hundred (200) basic school pupils, 40 each from Taviefe, Ziavi-Dzogbe, Ziave-Lume, Ho-Fiave and Sokode communities benefited from the project.

The 14,865.97 dollar programme, dubbed: “Mobile Library Internet Service for Development,” was under the auspices of Volta Regional Directorate of Ghana Library Authority, (GLA), with funding from Electronic Information for Libraries.

Mr Alikem Tamakloe, Regional Director of GLA told Ghana News Agency that the project had created a knowledge duct, through which pupils sent information on seed management, cropping techniques, food prices and pest control to their parents and relatives besides the acquisition of knowledge related to school subject areas.

He said the platform brought to the fore some challenges in the socio-economic set up of the beneficiary communities, which should be of importance to development planners.

He said project findings reinforced the need for community members to go into mix- farming because of limited cultivable lands due to rocky topographies.

Mr Tamakloe listed limited number of computers on the Authority’s Mobile Library, low capacity of the solar power on the van, late arrival of equipment, the teachers strike and children’s lack of reading skills as some challenges that confronted the project.

He said special reading clinics had to be arranged for some of the pupils to enable them effectively access the internet.

Mr Tamakloe said the project involved agricultural extension officers who would have to transform their observations into operational drives to improve agriculture in the area.

He said besides equipment, expenditure was in the areas of training under which the Mobile Library staff, two teachers each from beneficiary community schools, were trained in ICT and pedagogical skills.

Partners in the project included Ghana Investment Fund for Electronic Communication and Tree of Life International, a non-governmental organisation.

Source: GNA