Innovative Mobile Library Brings Rural School Children ICT and New Educational Opportunities

Abstract

Computer and Internet skills are compulsory subjects for Junior High School students (ages 11-16) in Ghana. However, many schools do not have computers, Internet connections or electricity, and so the students are unable to practise. As a result, they fail their ICT examinations. The cost of failure for children of poor families is high – their parents take them out of school. Without skills, they are unable to compete in the job-market, and face an uncertain future. The goal of this paper is to present the experience of Volta Regional library in bringing new educational opportunities to school children from rural and poor communities through mobile library ICT services. The library travels to five schools in a van equipped with solar power, bringing fully-charged laptops for the children to use during ICT classes. This service was developed with support of EIFL’s Public Library Innovation Program (PLIP) and is one of 18 innovative services that have been supported by EIFL-PLIP since 2010 in Africa. The paper draws conclusions built on the success of this service, and considers opportunities for development of a similar service for children and young adults in other communities of Ghana and internationally.