Why was the ‘ICT Blackboard Teacher’ Not Awarded?

The Ghanaian ICT teacher who, in the absence of a computer, drew the Microsoft Word interface on a blackboard to teach his students says he is not perturbed after being overlooked by organizers of this year’s Ghana Teacher Prize.

According to the teacher – Richard Akoto Appiah, he applied for the awards and was interviewed at the District level and although he did not make the final list, he still perceives himself as Ghana’s Teacher of the Year because of the impact he has had on his community.

 

More than an MP 

He said his post about his teaching methods for ICT on social media had released an avalanche of blessings on his career as well as his entire community.

He said: “I have been able to get two laboratories for the town which I think most of the MPs have not even done for their constituencies, so I am okay”.

Mr Appiah believes he was overlooked because educational, as well as governmental authorities, were not pleased with the attention his harmless post gathered.

“That’s Ghana for you, you know how the system works, I wasn’t surprised at all. When this issue came up, did you hear the Minister [the Education Minister] talking about it, did you hear the government talking about this?”.

He also revealed that the Education authorities in the Sekyedumase District asked him to write a report on the incident in the aftermath of the post going viral.

“At that time, our Director had gone on pension, so there was a woman at Mampong that was acting at our place and they asked me to write a report, that, that is the orders that she has also received.”

Credit: Graphic Online