Tuesday night eight of us ventured out on foot for dinner and wound up at a restaurant called Orangery several blocks from our hotel in the Asylum Down area. I think the two young Ghanaian men running the place were happy to see us because we were their only customers the entire evening. We've gotten to the point where we are all somewhat familiar with the basic Ghanaian lunch and dinner foods: many varieties of rice, meat, beans, stews, and side dishes including plantains, yams, and cassava. I ordered the peanut soup, which arrived with something I assumed to be chicken floating in the center. After eating it (delicious, by the way) I figured out it was guinea fowl. Hmmm. At the end of our dinner the Ghanaian Independence Day fireworks began ... we unintentionally had a great view.
Wednesday we split into two groups. Both groups drove about an hour to the outskirts of Accra - one group to speak with regional educational officials and my group to speak with teachers at Pokoasi Junior Secondary School. Pokoasi is a public Junior Secondary School. We had a frank conversation with the teaching staff and the Headmistress. The most common challenges that we share are large class sizes (for them, huge), limited supplies (for them, almost nonexistent), children arriving at school physically and mentally unprepared to learn (hunger, family issues, etc.), and questionable public support for education. Ghanaian schools are funded completely by the national government.
At Pokoasi JSS many young boys quit school to work in the nearby quarry to earn money for their families and is not uncommon for young girls to quit school due to pregnancy. The teachers attributed teenage pregnancy to the idea that when young girls are not able to get the economic and social care that they need from their families, they seek out an older man to provide that care. This may result in pregnancy and an end to the girl's academic life.
Our conversation covered a broad range of topics from educational funding to initial teacher preparation to curricular goals to actual lesson preparation. With U.S. teachers from Minnesota, Arizona, and New York a part of the conversation, it was almost impossible to generalize about American education. Its decentralized nature creates a crazy quilt of teaching and learning conditions that are a challenge to clearly communicate.
At the end of the meeting, a group of students brought in a bag of fresh coconuts. A few whacks of the machete, and we had a treat of fresh coconut.
Later in the day, we met with Ghana Education Service (GES) officials at the Ghana Ministry of Education. They provided us with additional information about Ghana's education system, including their takes on its strengths and challenges. The Ministry of Education establishes policy, whereas the GES is responsible for practice - teacher posting, syllabus, curriculum, testing, etc. Ghanaian schools receive 4.5 Cedi ($2.81) in per pupil funding per year. Minnesota schools currently receive approximately $5000 per pupil.
