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Those
Standing Tall
According
to Jonnie Akakpo, the main characters in Ghana’s
CLC story—“those standing tall”—are
the NGO leaders managing the Centers, who have
taken on a formidable challenge. Not only are
they mastering information, education and communication
technologies (IECTs) themselves, but they also
are coordinating staff training, undertaking sophisticated
outreach and orientation programs in their communities,
and trying to catch the eye of the private sector
by conducting seminars designed to appeal to business
and professional needs. The NGOs are designing
special events to address the needs of their constituents,
hosting days devoted to women and women’s
groups, for example, to teachers and students,
and to the private sector and professional associations.
The goal is to accommodate the needs of all individuals,
organizations and companies in the community.
 The
CLCs are permeating the communities slowly. The
main challenge is education—capturing the
imagination of the local people and groups and
letting them know that the CLCs are not computer
schools or just telecommunication centers for
business. They are multifaceted centers with the
capacity to provide resources for varying interests
and endeavors—from commerce to academics,
entertainment, personal communication, and municipal
information.
The
NGOs managing the CLCs include Partners for the
Internet in Education (PIE), an association of
primary and secondary school teachers in the greater
Accra region of Ghana. “As a means of widening
the scope of both teachers and students to the
rapidly advancing world of technology,” PIE’s
mission is to “become a catalyst for the
popularization of the use of computers and the
Internet in education.” The group’s
objectives include influencing educational policy
and reforming CEDECOM staff curriculum goals to
include computer literacy, as well as forging
links between schools and organizations within
Ghana and around the world who support the introduction
of technology in education.
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Geography
