School These Days

It's a well worn stereotype, the lazy white teenager. Don't care about work. Can't be bothered. So in what crazy, backwards schooling system are the Western teens the ones who care the most? Well, the Ghanaian one.

I honestly don't know how these kids stand it. A lack of resources of any kind mean that chalk & talk is the only kind of lesson they ever receive, that is, the only kind of lesson they receive when their teachers actually bother to turn up to class. Which isn't often. A few weeks ago I found myself accidentally becoming the school's ICT teacher in addition to my regular Science classes. Their actual ICT teacher stopped showing up in October last year and nothing was ever done about it, so the students just didn't get taught. And then when the teachers do actually turn up for class they spend half their time beating the crap out of the pupils. Talked in class? Caned. Answered a question wrong? Caned. Did badly in the homework? Caned.

And the reasons for all this are easy. Experience and money.

Teaching is not a prestigious job. Most teachers are very young here, around 21 years old, because teaching is just a stepping stone, a way to make a little money until they do something else. And what little money it is. At one of the volunteer's schools, a private school, some teachers earn as little as 20 cedi a month. That's less than eight pounds. And then there's the fact that these teachers are just fresh out of school themselves, and if they were caned and ignored and not taught half the syllabus in their classes, why should these students be any different?

It's a constant struggle, especially as the only obruni in a fairly large school, to bring some fun and variation into these children's lessons. I've had quizzes where they can write on the blackboard themselves, given out stickers, and one of my Science classes legitimately applauded me when I produced a packet of coloured pencils for them to use to make posters.

These kids are smart, and they deserve so much more than what they are getting.