Teachers and teaching...

As you might imagine, the school system and everyone in it is a little different here to at home. Being a teacher is not a highly respected position, and many teachers, even those who have gone through 3 years of training, will often have their eye out for other employment opportunities.

There are many different grades of teacher in Ghana. Some are qualified, with a Bachelor of Education (BEd), Diploma in Basic Education (DBE) or an older, 3 or 4 year teaching qualification. Others are Teaching Assistants, National Service Volunteers or Volunteer Teachers. The latter three have little or no training and are often left in charge of a class, though they’ll ideally work alongside someone with a qualification. Some are doing a Sandwich Course, which, unfortunately for me, does not mean that the culinary opportunities in Bolga are to be improved, rather that they go to a local Teacher Training College during the school holidays for three or four years and end up with a DBE. Teachers can teach over 100 (which I’ve seen often) and rarely less than 50 children.

But how much does the training actually matter? What makes a good teacher?

One of the best teachers I’ve come across is a P2 teacher called Mary*. She’s in her early 30s and has been at the school for a number of years – I’m not sure how long but she’s always been around since I’ve been in Ghana. She is a wonderful and natural teacher. The children are well behaved, their grades improve steadily year on year and she has a lovely manner with them. She explains their mistakes to them (many teachers put red crosses); she tries new games and activities when they’re suggested; the work she gives them is age appropriate and the children are keen to learn. She is also rarely absent, which at many schools is quite unusual.

But Mary is not trained. She doesn’t have the Senior High School grades to qualify for Sandwich course, which means that for as long as she’s a teacher, she will be paid a minimal salary, not be able to go for promotion and probably not be allowed to teach in the upper school.

Education and its value have clearly gone up the political agenda in recent times. Universal basic education (Primary and Junior High School) is free though not accessible to all due to costs of uniforms, books etc. The government gives a capitation grant for schools. The grant pays for sports days, some school equipment, any cultural events. Teachers are paid separately to this. At present at primary schools in Ghana, capitation grant is Ghc4 per child per year. Translated into £, that is £1.60 at the present rate of exchange, and almost half of this is used to pay exam fees. So less than £1 for the school to spend on each child’s education each year. Compare this to Scotland where children and teachers never need worry about having enough books, materials, sports equipment, musical instruments or even school dinners. (If anyone knows what the capitation per child is in Scotland/England, I’d like to know – Dad thought about £40?)

Another comparison is the government spending figures – again hard to compare, but in Scotland, an estimated £156.9 million on “Learning” and a further £2,426.7 million on higher and further education, SAAS and Lifelong learning. There are approximately 1.5 million school age children in Scotland. Even just taking the “Learning” figure, that’s £105 per child.

In comparison in Ghana, 23.8 million Ghana Cedis – that’s about £10 million spent on educating 7.4 million children – so about £1.35 per child.

I don’t believe a good teacher has to have 5 computers, an interactive whiteboard and every colour of paint under the sun in their classroom. A good teacher will teach well with minimal resources. But what Ghana really needs is the resources, in every school, for the average teacher to teach well. School Performance Improvement Plans (SPIPs) in Ghana are full of good ideas, but 95% of activities cannot be carried out without money. Ghana is now a “middle income” country, but go into any school in northern Ghana and this is incredibly hard to believe.

And as for my friend Mary…? If she lives out the rest of her career in the same school, teaching P2, the school will remain lucky to have her. She and her husband will continue to send their children to school, and maybe those children will go on to finish Senior High and get some more formal qualifications. I’ll continue to think of ways to help her improve as a teacher and one day perhaps get the qualification she deserves.

Some sources I’ve borrowed from:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Scotland

http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/ghana_statistics.html

http://Ghana.gov.gh/documents/2011budget.pdf

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2010/11/17091127/10

How much do you help?

Our night watchman was a bit tipsy last night. Not highly drunk, perfectly easy to talk to, but he’d certainly had a drink or two. He was not so pleased when I handed him Ghc8, Ghc2 less than he was expecting. He’d not turned up for a couple of nights, or if he had, he’d arrived after 11pm and left before 5.30am, which is also completely unacceptable.

But how much do you help? Our watchman is not the best. He has a drink problem, certainly. He normally turns up, rain or shine, every single day. He’s normally sober enough to do the job. We pay a pittance, but it’s the going-rate pittance that all night watchmen get, and it doesn’t stop him from doing other work in the day… if he can be bothered. He often turns up late and leaves pretty early, hasn’t done the garden as he’s sick which means that there’s a small risk of snakes, and a bigger risk of mosquitoes and bugs living in our compound. I’m not sure how sick he is – he had a small operation a month ago. He is normally paying back a loan from us for something or other – a bicycle once, this time “seeds” which I think was actually dowry money for his wife, a poor 18 year old who was probably given no choice about marrying this man twice her age.

Our neighbours, fellow volunteers, have a night watchman too. He gets paid a little bit more. He comes at dusk and stays until dawn. He is absent more often, but always tells them in advance, or gets his son to, and has never once asked for a loan. He tends the garden and keeps himself to himself.

There are lots of men who would love the chance of an extra Ghc35 each month to buy food for their family. Should the job belong to someone else?

Yet still I feel bad for taking Ghc2 from our man. I know I don’t often mention religion, but I keep thinking what would Jesus do? Taking Ghc2 from this man means that he might not be able to eat for a few days. However, it also gives him less money to drink. If he was working for a Ghanaian family, he’d be long gone, and we’ve been told by Ghanaians that he takes advantage of our niceness. Would Jesus have given him some money?

Shortly after our troubles, our friend Louis (a Ghanaian) spoke to him, I think threatening that we were looking for someone else to fill his position. Our watchman improved… for a while… then he brought a lady into the compound (his wife? not sure!) and got another Ghc5 off his pay.

Will we ever sack him? I don’t know. He’s attendance is almost perfect, he does a good job of cleaning the bins and always has a smile on his face. Because he doesn’t really do much other work, he’s around a lot, a deterrent to thieves and it’s nice to know someone’s around at night.

Just another part of the Ghana experience!