Learning from Social Entrepreneurs: Ghana Code Club
This interview series was developed and conducted by students from Salzburg College.
Ernestina Appiah
Ernestina Edem Appiah is the founder of the Ghana Code Club, an education-focused social enterprise that has spent over a decade working at the intersection of technology, education, and access in Ghana. For more than 10 years, Ernestina and her team have taught coding and digital skills in environments with limited devices, shared computers, and unreliable internet — conditions that reflect the reality of many schools across the country.
That experience led to a strategic shift. Rather than allowing infrastructure gaps to slow learning, Ghana Code Club intentionally redesigned its approach. Today, the organization operates a blended model that combines device-based learning with unplugged coding and AI education, ensuring that learning never pauses because of missing technology.
This model allows Ghana Code Club to reach learners everywhere — from fully equipped labs to classrooms with no devices at all — while still teaching deep, relevant digital skills.
Ghana Code Club
1. How would you describe access to technology and digital education for young people in Ghana right now?
Access to technology in Ghana has improved, but it remains uneven — and in many cases, fragile.
After teaching for over a decade in public schools, community centers, and rural areas, we’ve learned that access can change overnight. Devices break, labs close, connectivity drops, or classes become too large to share limited computers. Waiting for perfect infrastructure simply means too many children are left behind.
That reality is why Ghana Code Club changed its strategy. We no longer treat devices as the starting point for learning. Through our unplugged coding and AI books, children learn core programming and computational thinking principles using games, paper blocks, storytelling, movement, and real-life problem-solving. When devices are available, we seamlessly transition learners to screens. When they’re not, learning continues.
This flexibility has made our programs more resilient, scalable, and inclusive.
2. What tools or methods work best when teaching kids and especially girls, how to code?
The most effective method is a mix of device and non-device learning, designed intentionally rather than as a fallback.
When infrastructure allows, we teach using Scratch, robotics kits, and web-based tools. But alongside this, we use unplugged activities to introduce and reinforce concepts behind real-world programming languages.
Even without computers, learners explore:
- How HTML structures information
- How CSS controls visual design
- How JavaScript creates interaction and logic
- How Python uses patterns, conditions, and commands to solve problems
These ideas are taught playfully — through cards, role-play, drawing, sequencing games, and storytelling— so learners understand how code works before they write it.
For girls, this blended approach is especially powerful. It removes fear, reduces screen intimidation, and builds confidence early. Learning becomes collaborative, creative, and human — long before it becomes technical.
Ghana Code Club
3. What do you think would make the biggest difference for improving digital skills in the future?
The biggest difference will come from rethinking digital education policy and delivery models.
Digital skills should not depend solely on infrastructure. Teacher training, curriculum design, and national strategies must include low-tech, high-impact approaches that work in real classrooms — not just ideal ones.
Our experience shows that when children first learn how technology thinks, they adapt easily to any tool later. By mixing unplugged learning with gradual access to devices, and by equipping teachers with flexible resources, countries can build strong digital foundations at scale.
If we want a future where African children are creators of technology, we must design systems that work with the realities on the ground, not against them.
Ghana Code Club
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