Week Two: 1st – 7th February 2010

I spent most of this week familiarising myself with the District’s strategic plans and the schemes of work that teachers will be delivering this term.

The strategic plan identifies the District’s main priorities and builds upon the Ministry of Education’s Mission Statement – a copy of this is on the Director’s office door.

The strategic plan has four thematic areas that relate to: the quality of education; equitable access to education; management for efficiency; science, technology and vocational education and training.

The Millennium Goal of ensuring all children across the world receive free primary education has led to an increase in enrolment in Ghana that has placed an enormous strain on the existing infrastructure. The school building programme, as well as teacher recruitment and training, is lagging way behind demand. This means that class sizes are extremely large, especially in the kindergarten and early primary years. For the 2009-10 academic year, the teacher (trained and untrained) student ratios for the different stages of education are as follows:
Kindergarten (KG) 117
Primary 46
Junior High School 21

Insufficient classroom space has also resulted in an increase in the number of children being taught in “schools under tress”. In the Talensi-Nabdam District there are forty-two such schools.

As well as the “schools under trees”, there are also eleven schools that have dilapidated buildings. Some of these are dangerous and should really be demolished.

In addition to the lack of classrooms, there are 24 schools in the District that do not have any sanitary facilities, i.e. toilets, for either the children or staff to use and despite temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees at this time of year, there are still schools where children do not have access to drinking water.

Recently, the Government of Ghana quite rightly recognised the importance of ICT to the country’s future development and declared that ICT would now be a compulsory subject in all Basic Schools. Great in theory. However, this is a major challenge for a District that only has 5 schools with electricity (out of a total of 144 schools) and of these five only two have a couple of computers between them! Some classrooms do not even have a chalkboard. As a result teachers have to make do with whatever is available.

I met one Headteacher this week who explained that his school’s roof needed repairing – obviously a situation I could empathise with. However, his roof didn’t need repairing because of poor workmanship, but because vampire bats were getting into the roof space and urinating over the textbooks!

Some communities are trying to address the shortage of classrooms themeselves, but whist it is possible for them to make the walls using traditioal methods and volunteer labour at no cost, money is needed to buy the materials for the roof. Also, as you can see from the images below, the lack of windows for light and ventilation in traditional mud classrooms means the structures are not as conducive to good learning as properly built classrooms.

Despite Basic School education being free in Ghana, it is still a significant burden for many families to send their children to school. Uniform, exercise books and equipment have to be purchased, and of course if the child is at school then they are not around to help with the many other things that need to be done. As a result the drop-out rate is high, especially amongst girls. It appears that the Millennium Goal of ensuring all children receive a free primary school education has not been fully thought through by international policy makers, as the infrastructure has not been put in place to ensure that children going to school are able to receive the quality of education needed to genuinely make a difference to their life chances – despite the best effort of some of their teachers.

Week One: 25th – 31st January 2010

The first week of my placement was spent in meetings, getting to know the different roles of colleagues in the GES (Ghana Education Service) office and learning yet more acronyms! Everyone made me feel extremely welcome and they were very patient in answering my many questions.

I will be based at the Talensi-Nabdam District GES offices in Tongo. A building and location far removed from the workplace I left in January.

The offices are in what were once three classrooms belonging to the Junior High School (JHS) that shares the site along with a primary school. The 167 JHS students are now taught in three classrooms rather than the six they used to have. That makes an average of 56 students per room. The classrooms are about the same size as an average room at Walton High.

The photographs below show the scene around the GES office.

The site is very close to the Tongo Hills and although it is a harsh environment for people and animals, especially in the dry season, the landscape has its own beauty.

The Senior Team meeting I attended on Monday had some interesting differences to those at Walton High. Our meetings do not start with a prayer and usually begin at the scheduled time (once people have got their tea and coffee that is) and I have yet to notice anyone resting their eyes during one of my meetings! Also, it would be extremely unusual for a meeting at Walton High to be interrupted by a mobile phone going off and someone then answering it. In GES meetings this is quite common. Indeed, one big difference I have noticed generally is the priority people give to answering their mobile phone over virtually anything else they might be doing at the time.

The weekly Monday meeting is used as an opportunity for all the GES officers to report back on their activities the previous week and to inform others of the things they plan to do in the coming week – especially if this had implications for other people’s responsibilities. An example of this is the SHEP (School Health Education Programme) officer notifying the meeting that there had been an outbreak of anthrax in some of the villages in the District and asked anyone visiting schools to look out for children with possible symptoms to ensure they received any health care they need as soon as possible.

The lack of ICT also leads to different ways of working. Whereas we would usually use Outlook to organise meetings and share information, the GES staff write events and other information of common interest on the blackboard at the front of the room because very few officers have access to PCs or laptops and those that are available are not networked and do not have internet access. As people are often visiting school, mobile phones are an essential part of people’s working life.

The Director of Talensi-Nabdam, Mr Francis Ayaaba often puts up a “Thought for the day”. On my first Monday it was: “There are two things to aim for in life, first to get what you want, and after that to enjoy it; only the wisest of mankind has achieved the second.”

Getting to the Talensi-Nabdam District from where I am living in Bolga is already proving a challenge. At the moment I have decided the easiest way round this is to get a taxi. The return trip costs 20GHc a day (c. £8.60) which is quite a lot considering my daily allowance is 10GHc. The journey takes about 25 minutes and much of it is over some pretty rough roads.

Most of the people who live in the area are subsistence farmers and live in traditionally built homes.

Below are some of the scenes I pass on the way.

African Cup of Nations

This week was full of football talk.  In true footballer supporter style, Ghanians had forgotten their highly critical comments of their team's performance against the Ivory Coast and were now hoping for success againast their arch rivals, Nigeria.

The Black Star's very close 1-0 win was greeted by great jubilation in the streets as Bolga as people took to the streets to celebrate - anyone would have thought they had won the competition!

I watched the final in a place that had two TVs - the one on the left was showing the Ghana v Egypt final, whereas the TV on the right was showing the Arsenal v Man Utd game. 

The venue was small and packed with about 150 young and exclusively male Ghanians - most of whom were wearing Man Utd shirts!  It was a doubly bad afternoon for me as both my teams lost!  As it was a Muslim establishment, I couldn't even console myself with a beer!

Ghanaians were gracious in defeat, despite being somewhat unlucky. Every Ghanaian I spoke to was pleased with their team's performance - which is more than I could say for Arsenal's!

Day 14: Sunday, 24 January 2010 - My new home in Bolgatanga

My first day in Bolgatanga, or Bolga as it is known locally, was one of unpacking, resting and getting to know my new housemate, Christina.

Christina is from Ireland and has been a volunteer since November 2009. Her placement is for one, or possibly two, years. She is a primary teacher by profession and is working as a Teacher Support Officer (TSO) in the same Ghana Education Service (GES) District where I will be a Headteacher Teacher Support Officer (HTSO).

The house we are staying in is large, with five bedrooms. It has a walled garden which has Paw Paw and mangos growing in it. The lawn’s not too great though!

There is a large living room (which for security reasons houses both Christina’s motorbike and her cycle), a long hallway, and a large kitchen that in estate agent speak “has potential”.

For those of you that obsess about such things, you will be pleased to know we have a flushing toilet (in fact there are two in the house as Christina’s room has an en-suite) and the shower is in a wet room.

I am getting used to the cold shower in the morning, and at the end of a hot and sweaty day it is just what you need!

My bedroom is a nice size, and yes I did tidy before taking this photo!

The bedroom even has its own baby gecko to eat those unwanted insects! This little chap (he is about two inches long) is often seen on the walls, but this is him on the ceiling above my bed. Fortunately, he seems to have a good grip so there should be no falling on me in the night! My biggest concern is that unlike the larger geckos in the house (they grow up to about 7 inches) that stick exclusively to the walls and ceilings this little fellow often walks across the floor. So far it is only its quick movement that has stopped him being trodden on.

My only complaint about the house is that the central heating appears to be stuck on the very high setting, as it has yet to fall below 29 degrees in my bedroom!

Day 13: The journey north – Saturday, 23 January 2010

A 6.30am start enabled us to avoid much of the Accra traffic, but unfortunately a lorry had overturned on a section of unmade road leading to a long tailback. This, and the long sections of unmade roads, made the journey north a long one.

In fact, we could have flown from Accra to Heathrow and back again in the same amount of time it took us to travel from Accra to Bolgatanga.

The dust on some of the roads made driving very difficult.

However, it must be even more difficult for the people who live along side these unmade roads because, as you can see from the colour of the leaves on the tree and the roofs of people’s homes in the photo below, the dust covered homes and vegetation for a distance of at least 50m from the road.

As it was a Saturday, we passed many people on their way to funerals. Mourners in Ghana, especially in the south, traditionally wear red and black.

Another aspect of life on Ghana’s roads we were becoming used to, are the slogans people put across the rear windows of their vehicles. Most are religious in nature.

Whilst others relate to something else many Ghanaian hold dear.

We even saw one taxi with Tony Blair written across the back – I’m not too sure what that was all about!

Having first crossed the Black Volta River

We then crossed the White Volta before stopping for a bite to eat in Tamale at about 4.30pm.

After Tamale the road north was mainly surfaced (except for the large pot holes that is) and very straight.

It was interesting to note the change in scenery as we headed for the much hotter and drier north and what a contrast the grass savannah was to the much lusher tropical south.

Approximately fourteen hours after starting out from Accra, we eventually arrived in Bolgatanga. Our driver, Isaha, had done a tremendous job of getting us here safely. Driving on Ghana’s roads requires total concentration, so he must have been exhausted after such a long day.

Day 9 - 12: VSO In Country Training - Tuesday, 19th January to Friday 22nd January 2010

The Hotel


On 19th January we said our goodbyes to Mariam and Darligton who had looked after us so well at the villa and moved to the Hotel Byblos in central Accra. On the outside the hotel looked promising, but looks can be deceptive!

On the inside the standard of accommodation and the level of customer service we experienced left a lot to be desired. Aspects of it were like Fawlty Towers on a bad day! Certainly not a hotel I would recommend anyone to use.

The three of us were originally shown rooms in the annex area across the road from the main hotel. Shortly after lugging my very heavy cases up the steep stairs (there is no lift) one of the hotel staff came and told me I had to move to different room in the main building! Getting the cases down the steep stairs was even more difficult than getting them up them in the first place, which resulted in them being dropped and bounced down a number of stairs more than once – fortunately there wasn’t much in them to break!

The new room I was allocated was just off the reception area – good news as it meant I would not have to carry the cases up yet more stairs. The bad news was that as soon as the door was opened there was an almost overpowering smell of damp coming from the room. Mosquitoes in the room were also a problem as the screening on the window was missing on one half and broken on the other. There were plenty of gaps in the window frame for these pesky insects to enter. That night I got no sleep due to the nauseating smell and noise from the air conditioning unit which had no control unit to turn it to the sleep setting. The next morning I had a splitting headache and felt quite nauseous. For those of you who know what I am like when I have had insufficient sleep, you can imagine what sort of mood I was in!

The shower did have hot water, but the shower curtain was useless and drainage was very poor. After a short period of time the water overflowed the shower and flooded the bathroom floor. The toilet flushed, but the seat was loose so it had to be used with care!

For breakfast there was a choice of egg and bread or bread and egg! Not good for a person who has a problem with eating eggs!

I asked to see the manager, but he wasn’t available. My colleagues in the annex had similar issues, but also had the added concern about the lack of security as the outside door to the annex did not lock so was open all night. The hotel’s annex is the building next to House of Spirits below. The pink building is a new expensive night club – Citizen Kofi.

I think it is too easy to say “What do you expect in a developing country.” The fact is that we live in an ever shrinking world and tourism is a potential source of significant foreign income for countries like Ghana. However, people will only travel to such places if the essentials are right, i.e. basic cleanliness, maintenance and an acceptable level of customer care. I also believe that organisations such as VSO have a role to play in raising standards. Businesses should only receive their custom if certain standards are met and checks should be conducted to ensure minimum standards are maintained. Businesses that fail to meet these expectations should lose their custom until deficiencies are put right. Such action would support the overall raising of standards, which can only be in everyone’s interest.

The irony of our experience at the hotel is that we calculated it would have been cheaper for VSO to have put us up at the villa than in this sub-standard hotel!

Restaurants

Our experience of restaurants in Accra was similar to that of accommodation. The Lebanese restaurant attached to the hotel had shabby furniture, tatty menus, slow service and uninspiring food – needless to say we only ate there once. A short distance away there is an Italian restaurant, Leonardo’s, that has excellent decor and some of the best service I have experienced anywhere in the world. The food was also great and very reasonably priced. As we enjoyed our first meal there so much we returned the next day to sample something else from their extensive menu and to celebrate my birthday (and the fact that I was entering my 50th year!) a few days early.

In Country Training

As there were only the three of us that needed training, we had an intensive few days to cover all the things we need to know before heading north.

Dora, who is responsible for the VSO education programme in Ghana, gave us a comprehensive overview of Ghanaian education system and the issues affecting education, whilst Eric informed us about the Tackling Education Needs Inclusively (TENI) project. We thought the UK was bad for acronyms, but I can assure you Ghanaians win hands down! Their guiding principle appears to be why use words when a string of letters will do! We also had a briefing on cultural practices from Nii and a health briefing that made us all want to return to the safety of the UK!

Day 8: 18 January 2010 - University of Cape Coast

After an early start we arrived at the University of Cape Coast (UCC) to find out more about initial teacher training in Ghana and the Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa programme. UCC’s campus must enjoy one of the most idyllic locations of any university in the world with its palm lined avenues, manicured grounds and panoramic views over the Gulf of Guinea coastline.

Our hosts from UCC’s Institute of Education, Might and Kwame, had arranged for us to meet a Tutor from a local teacher training college and a qualified teacher.

We had an extremely useful meeting in which we found out about the course student teachers follow. It differs significantly from courses in England, as in Ghana trainee teachers do not go on teaching practice until the third year of their three year course. We also discovered that due to the shortage of teachers, nobody who remains on the course for the duration fails – regardless of how poor their classroom practice is! It also appears that due to the lack of status associated with teaching as a profession, it is often not the first choice for many of those who train to teach.

We had an enjoyable lunch at a nearby centre for Ghana’s Teachers’ Union. We approved of its motto!