Day 7: A new week…a new school

A new week meant a new school for Elisabeth and I.  Kasoa school had an equal number of children as 94, but the school was significantly smaller, making classrooms much more cramped and closer together and noise levels much more disrupting. If I was a teacher I do not know how I would be able to deal with the constant echoing chants coming from the lower primary classes. I have begun to wonder how beneficial rote style learning can actually be.  The children can memorize things well, but it is unclear whether they actually understand what they are repeating and chanting. From helping Sophie last week with her reading tests it was clear that although the children would chant the words in the test daily, they could not recognise them when written down.  Of course it is easy to criticise the education system in Ghana, compared to Britain with our almost endless resources. But I believe with the right instruction and teaching, the teachers in Ghana could learn new teaching techniques, which steer away from rote style learning and focus more on the childrens actual understanding.

Watching the local news on TV that evening I noticed one of the main headlines concerning government teachers striking. The strikes had been going on for a week, as the teachers demanded an increase in salary and a decrease in class size. The Omega schools are private and so if teachers do not come to school they will not get paid. The government teachers already get paid much more than those in the low-cost private schools due to the fact government teachers have actual teaching degrees yet they seem to produce the same results (although I am yet to see a government class first hand), but from the children who have recently come from government schools to an Omega school do not seem more advanced, merely at the same level as all the other children. So the teachers in Omega do exactly the same work for a lot less pay, and from a mere 2 weeks teacher training. It does not seem to add up?

One of the good things about Kasoa school was their computer room containing 12 computers in clusters of 4, all with internet access. So, I managed to begin my mini research project, as students stayed after school to set up yahoo accounts and send emails to Benton Park Primary school in Newcastle (a school where I had previously been helping out at ever week as part of a career development module).  The idea of having a pen friend in England seemed to excite the children, and although the internet was terribly slow and constantly crashing, the children waited patiently and we managed to send 5 emails to the Newcastle school.

A long but rewarding day, and no doubt more hard work tomorrow, as my research begins to take full flow.