Ghana gets more local digital content for children with launch of ‘Ananse the Teacher’ app

Tigo Digital Changemaker and Technology enthusiast, Josephine Marie Godwyll, has launched an ambitious app which harnesses local folklore to engage children in mathematics, science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics.

The colourful and engaging Ananse the Teacher app, a great addition to local content for children in Ghana works on android and provides relevant local examples of various experiments found in the basic curricula of the Ghana Education Service.

Speaking at the launch of the App at the Bishop Bowers School in Accra, Josephine explained that after years of volunteering to teach basic schools in rural Ghana, she wanted children to have local examples that they could easily understand and relate to.

“Ananse was such a popular character in local stories when I was growing up, I found him in local books and my best memories were stories from my grandmother. What we have done with this app is continue with the Ananse stories and experiments in a much more engaging way and allows children to participate in the activities.

Commending Josephine and her team of volunteers, the Director for Corporate Affairs at Tigo, Gifty Bingley, said such local contents were great for digital inclusion. She highlighted the several innovations from the Tigo Digital Changemakers programme that were contributing to digital innovations.

Educationist and Founder of Trainers at the GATE Institute, Anis Haffar, encouraged parents and teachers to teach children about safety while they are online.

Josephine was the co-winner for Tigo’s 2015 Digital Changemakers competition. As part of her prize package she won GHS 70,000 and continues to get support and guidance from Tigo and international NGO, Reach for Change.