Christopher Ado, Physics Teacher, Ghana

Chris’ story goes back fifteen years to 1987 when he graduated from a teacher-training college in Ghana and took a job teaching.  At that time teaching meant working in an education system where: (i) school children and teachers were without textbooks and paper as a result of foreign exchange constraints; (ii) buildings, furniture and equipment had deteriorated as a result of lack of replacement and repair; (iii) enrollment levels had declined over the years, while dropout rates from the school system continued to rise; (iv) there was an exodus of significant numbers of trained and highly qualified teachers; and (v) the government’s financing of education had been drastically reduced.   For ten years that was Chris’ reality.

When World Links was launched in Ghana in 1997, Chris had just completed his first decade of service as a Physics teacher.  During his tenure in four different senior secondary schools across Ghana, Chris did just what was expected of him –teach his syllabus and make sure his students passed on to the next grade.  Except for the first couple of years or so, Chris never updated his lesson plans.  The routine of teaching the same lessons over several years resulted into Chris’ literally memorizing his entire lesson plans.  Says Chris: “I had become intellectually lazy, and now looking at how much my subject matter evolves day after day due to the technological breakthroughs, I really feel guilty…”  Then World Links introduced Chris to computers, the Internet and what he now calls “all the good things of technology” for the first time in his life.   “The first search I ever ran on the web was for the word ‘Einstein’”, recalls Chris.  Since then, Chris Ado recollects the countless hours he spends searching for up-to-date physics-related content, lesson plans and activities to improve his teaching.  Chris also considers himself a Good Samaritan.  For two years now Chris has served as a devoted “resource person” for two of his former colleagues –one in a school located hundreds of miles in Ghana’s Northern Region with no telephone connection at all, and the second one in Takoradi, where only a few people can afford any use of modern telecommunications.  For each one of his colleagues, Chris prints regularly hard copies of good subject matter resources that he then dispatches via the payroll pouch once a month.