Ghana teachers visit UK schools

Six teachers from the Northern Region of Ghana swapped classrooms earlier this month with schools across East Anglia as part of Camfed’s Schools Partnership Project. The teachers’ exchange was organised by Camfed in partnership with the Harambee Centre for Development Education, to encourage greater understanding between children in the UK and Ghana.

“Education will eradicate ignorance. Education will let people know themselves better. Education will make people appreciate one another’s culture. Education will help people to live in peace. Education will help us protect ourselves against this dreadful disease, AIDS.” William Abendoah, teacher, Waribogu Primary School, Northern GhanaTeachers in Ghana and East Anglia have exchanged letters, drawings and poems between their pupils for the past two years. Then in May, four teachers from Cambridgeshire and Essex got the opportunity to visit their partner schools in Ghana, staying with local families to find out what it’s like to live in a rural African village.

Now six Ghanaian teachers have had the chance to sample life in schools throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex and Hertfordshire, as well as enjoying traditional British celebrations, Halloween and Bonfire Night.

Ghanaian primary school teacher Ernest Aboyine spent a week visiting Newnham Croft Primary School in Cambridge. His first surprise was seeing that British teachers don’t use chalk and blackboards. In Ernest’s school in rural Ghana, there is no electricity, so teachers are forced to rely on old-fashioned blackboards rather than computers and projectors. And in Ghana, classes are so big that lessons are taught in a more formal lecture style.

“The lessons here involve all the children,” said Ernest, who teaches a class of 45 students in Tamale. “We can’t do that because of our large class size.”

Newnham Croft’s Year 6 teacher, Alistair Grandison, said that, in spite of all the differences, Ernest had done remarkably well to adapt to life in the Cambridge classroom. And his pupils benefited too.

“It’s been good for the pupils to see different cultures,” said Alistair.

“The only way to liberate yourself is through education. I know my family was poor and the only way to break out of the chains of poverty was through education.” Christine Yakubu, programme officer, RAINS, Northern GhanaThe school exchange was set up by Camfed with support from the Department for International Development (DFID) with the aim of fostering friendship and cultural links and increasing understanding between different cultures. According to William Abendoah, a teacher from Waribogu Primary School in Ghana who took part in the exchange: “Education will eradicate ignorance. Education will let people know themselves better. Education will make people appreciate one another’s culture. Education will help people to live in peace.”

Programme officer Christine Yakubu helped to coordinate the teachers’ exchange, working with Camfed’s partner organisation in Northern Ghana, RAINS.

“This programme is very important to me because it has given children and teachers the chance to learn about other cultures,” said Christine, who accompanied the teachers on their visit to East Anglia.

“It’s going to promote the ideas of global citizenship, to help children understand they’re part of the world.”

“We in Ghana have been thinking we don’t have much to offer,” said Christine. “But this visit has given us the confidence that we have something to share. I think when we go back to Ghana, we will be full of smiles.”