School Report for 2008
By Christine de-Manuel
The visit this year was more of a fact finding mission although I did
also get a few practical issues dealt with. The experiences I had were
many and varied and I could write pages but will try to keep to basics!
I started in Tamale at Étoile Royale Education centre. This was very
different to Ko,
parents
pay fees to have there children at the Creche, Nursery or school which
at present takes up to Grade 5 but is expanding each year. Florence Pul
is Principle and welcomed Joe, Jonathan and myself. We were shown around
the centre and met with staff and children. Florence is keen to
establish links with a school or schools in the UK and hopes next year
to pay a visit herself. Many of the children spoke good English and it
was easy to communicate with them. The standard of education was higher
than in Ko - as expected - and the class sizes were smaller. Teaching
methods seem quite similar with the benefit of better resources, they
also have a suite of computers that are timetabled for the children to
use. The head of Early Years was keen to establish the creative side of
the curriculum and interested in developing 'learning through play'. I
enjoyed sharing ideas with her. I have names of children to link up with
my school and form pen friends. It would seem more possible to create
links on an interactive basis with this school than Ko A, to establish
an
agreement
in partnership on a global basis.
Going to Tamale took a whole day journey each way so reduced the time at Ko. As expected the library we set up was not being used on a regular basis. So after I had sorted our container resources that were delivered and reorganised the library books, which were very muddled, I spent further time on training the staff and children in use of the library and how books should be used and stored. I left with hopes that this would be taken on board and maybe Ko B might use it too.
Dery
and I visited the District Director of Education for the Region ( in
Lawra) to discuss the provision of teachers and how we FREED UK as a
charity could support the development of Ko A school to be a model
school. We left with some commitment to the provision of staff and ways
forward to get electricity at the school. While in Lawra I hoped to meet
up with a VSO couple who have been supporting the development of ‘model
Kindergartens’ and the training of teachers to use phonics for reading
but they were in Accra. However I did meet with VSO Ruth Heery who was
actually involved with schools around Nandom, Ko A amongst them.( She
was unaware of the library resource despite visiting the school several
times.) She was able to visit the school with me and we watched some
teaching of phonics. Two teachers had been on the phonics training
programme at Lawra (Gabriella, the Head and her P1 teacher). We were
pleased to say that they had taken the skills on board and were doing
quite well!
Dery
enjoyed a session of maths teaching in KoA school with P6 and we met
with the teachers to discuss our hopes for the school. One of the young
teachers at Ko has shown promise and we are planning to organise his
training along with some incentive to come back and teach at Ko. He has
at first to work a bit on his own qualifications to get into college.
The Head retires next summer but we have had some reassurance of a
suitable replacement from the District Education Director.
Time
at the Kindergarten with the nursery age children was restricted. Thanks
to the support of Glenda, the toys in the store cupboard were sorted out
with new ones rescued from the school library (some home to a family of
mice!) Sister Jan was pleased with the posters and rhymes I had taken
out, I was sorry not to have time to set things out and share more with
the children. We saw for the first time a play session with the toys!
Also Sister Jan thought it would be a good idea to put shelves up in the rooms for easy access to the toys, so a step forward in thinking! Kindergarten staff have finally gone on strike as they have not been paid for months! Many of the kindergartens have been closed as a result. So our visit achievements this year were:
-
Teacher
and pupil training for Library and how to use the books correctly.
- Visited the District Director of Education to get support and plan for progress.
- Unpacking and organising container books and toys.
- Provision of more posters for each room and some phonics resources.
- Observation of phonics lessons, discussion with Ruth Heery on the school and education in the area.
- Review play equipment in Nursery, organised some boxes and baskets with shelving for storage.
- Provision of a ‘Numeracy resource box’ for each class including rulers, 100 squares etc. to enable more interactive teaching.
- Giving letters from Barry Primary school to Ko A P6 children and taking some back!
- Visiting and comparing conditions between private and state run schools.
- Forming links with Étoile Education Centre for future development.
Dery and I also paid a visit to Nandom Secondary School to look around. Blake Fleischer, a Peace Corps worker there has been working wonders on the ICT and Science curriculum. FREED UK has provided some computers and it was interesting to see the school and its resources. In the future, Blake plans to put an extra page on our web site about the school. Watch this space!
School Project 2007
School Report by Christine de-Manuel and Jenny Howlett
Freed UK. have made links with two primary schools and a nursery in
the upper west region of Ghana, in a village called KO, approximately 20
minutes drive from Nandom.
The contrast between English primary schools and both KO A and B is
enormous. The schools are only partially staffed by qualified teachers;
volunteer teachers make up over 50%
of the staff. Lessons rely on ‘chalk
and talk’ education methods, with teachers using mainly blackboards
to convey information, with minimal interaction from the children. Classes consist of numbers between 45 to 60 children, who are all seated
in rows of desks, so there is no interaction between children and their
peers. Classroom environments lack any stimulation or display to enhance
the curriculum or show children’s work and the schools lack enough
funding for general repairs and maintenance of the buildings.
Achievements so far:
-
2 new urinals to KO A primary school. - clean drinking water/washing vats supplied.
- supply of educational books, stationery, toys, sports equipment given to KO A primary and nursery.
- link established between Barry Primary School children in the UK and KO A children.
- established further contact with KO B school and undertook some floor repair work.
- researched existing teaching methods and use of resources in the school and nursery, provided some support, teaching ideas and educational posters.
- decorated, re-modelled and began resourcing library for use by KO A and B children and nursery.
Hopes for the future:
Freed are aware of the enormity of this project in achieving all of
the desired outcomes and that much funding is required. However, we feel
that each small step is progress in the right direction.
Our ultimate aim (and that of the head teachers) is to improve the quality and standard of education to enable more children from both schools to go forward to secondary education. At present the number of children extending their education is very low!
To achieve this main aim, our objectives are as follows:
- improve the classroom conditions and environments of both schools, by repair and decoration and provision of educational posters, friezes etc.
- support and improve methods of teaching, to encourage interactive teaching and learning.
- research possibility of sponsoring the training of more teachers for the schools, so that progress can be sustained after our support.
- review the current syllabus used at the schools.
- ensure Radio FREED lessons can be accessed, including providing more radios and batteries.
- fund a mechanical pump in between both schools to provide clean drinking water throughout the school day.
- provide an electricity supply to both schools, which will enable use of computers.
- enhance the nursery environment, by provision of posters and resources and suggest organising and resourcing a practical based play area in one of the two classrooms.