Link Community Development is a charity of nine partner organisations working to improve access to quality primary education in sub-Saharan Africa.

Kate Armstrong is sending us updates on their projects. In her introductory blog she documented some of the challenges faced in Ghana with regard to building an education infrastructure and providing access to all. Now she tells us about the Link Schools Programme which is creating connections between classrooms in Ghana and Scotland, with benefits for both pupils and teachers as well as their communities.

“Hello, I’m based in Edinburgh where Link facilitates educational partnerships between Scottish and African schools and raises awareness of the challenges facing African education. I’m currently spending a month in Ghana to see how our projects are impacting on schools in the rural Ashanti and Upper East regions.

BLOG 2: THE LINKS SCHOOLS PROGRAMME

“The teachers at Aburaso Methodist Primary School are proud to consider it one of the best in Ashanti Region, but this wasn’t always the case.

Aburaso once faced many of the challenges that are common to primary schools in rural Ghana. A lack of interest in education from the predominantly farming community made it difficult for the teachers to persuade parents to send their children to school. Although the teachers worked hard and believed strongly in the importance of education, parents’ lack of interest was demoralising and teachers felt under-appreciated. At the same time they struggled to make school appealing to those children who did come to class so that they wouldn’t drop out and spend their days helping out on the family farm. With very few teaching materials available in rural schools, the teachers themselves are the main resource in the classroom – something which requires huge enthusiasm and commitment to be successful.

Aburaso was one of the first schools to receive support from Link in Ashanti region and quickly signed up to the Link Schools Programme, Link’s initiative to facilitate quality educational partnerships between African and European schools.  We support partnerships for 65 Scottish schools who are linked to schools in Ghana, Malawi, South Africa and Uganda. For Scottish schools this is a unique opportunity to bring global citizenship issues to life in the classroom and enable pupils to learn with and from their counterparts in Africa.  For African schools the partnership often extends beyond the school and into the heart of the community.

I met the Head Teacher and the Link School Coordinator in the tiny school office. The door is propped open to let in some light and the noise of 600 children enjoying their break makes conversation almost impossible. I take the time to look around the office at posters promoting girls’ education and photographs of a school in the UK. The Head Teacher excuses herself to ring the bell (a rusty car wheel hung from a tree) and gradually peace descends as children file into their classrooms.

The teacher assigned to be the Link Coordinator has been at the school for over 6 years and has seen the impact of the Link Schools Programme. He explains that having a partner school in the UK has given Aburaso Primary a higher status and people have started to take a lot more interest in what happens here. Enrolment has increased and parents have become more involved in what their children are learning in class. The partnership began with exchanging letters from pupils and teachers to find out about what life is like in the UK.

The pupils at Aburaso had a lot of questions, especially about what school is like for their partners, what kind of food they eat and whether they also have to help their parents with farming. The teachers were excited by the opportunity to learn about different teaching methods and ideas to keep lessons interesting.

The older classes are now taking part in joint projects with their UK partners. Using resources specially designed to fit the curriculum of every country where Link works, they follow lesson plans on the Millennium Development Goal themes such as the Environment, Health, Education and Gender. They have just calculated the carbon footprint of Aburaso school and sent the results to the UK. They are looking forward to receiving their partner school’s results so they can compare their impact on the environment. After attending a training session to learn how to use these resources, the teachers feel more confident in dealing with these subjects in class and are pleased to have new ways to introduce the themes. As well as improving pupils’ reading and writing skills, this project and the Link Schools Programme provides them with a window on the wider world beyond their isolated community.

This was especially the case when some teachers from the UK school came to visit. For many pupils it was the first opportunity to meet someone from another country, and the visit raised the status of Aburaso Primary in the eyes of the community. As well as a great deal of enthusiasm for learning about school life in Africa, the visitors brought with them some ideas for integrating more active learning into the school day, especially around sports and art lessons where they encouraged children to be creative, something which is often missing from schools which depend on rote learning because of scarce resources. The teachers at Aburaso are making an effort to continue these practices because the pupils responded to them so positively. Some teachers from Aburaso were also able to visit the UK and saw this as a chance to expand their professional skills. They observed their partner school’s activities and tried their hand at teaching some classes. They found IT lessons especially interesting and were impressed that every child had their own computer to work with. When they returned to Ghana these teachers were able to share their experiences and worked with colleagues to integrate some of the good practice they observed in the UK into their lessons.

Aburaso is fortunate to have a good supply of teachers and the pupil-teacher ratio is 35:1, much lower than the average for rural Ghana.

However, having enough classrooms is another matter. Three Kindergarten classes share a large hall and the noise of their excited learning echoes across the school campus. Outside, across a dusty playing field with lopsided goalposts, lies a newer block of classrooms. Although the Link Schools Programme focuses on mutual learning and partner schools are not asked to fundraise, the Link Coordinator explains that their Link School helped to raise the funds for this project and the community contributed too as they increasingly saw the school as an important investment in their children’s future. The classrooms may be overcrowded, but it is better than having lessons sitting on the dusty ground.

As I leave the Head Teacher asks me to pass on a message from Aburaso to their Link School: “Thank you, you have given us so much.” Listening to this message in the UK, their partner school feels exactly the same.

The Link Schools Programme is open to all schools in Scotland. For more information please visit www.linkschools.org. For general information about our work in Scotland and Africa please visit www.lcdinternational.org.

We’ll have another update from Kate in Ghana next week.

Related posts:
Ghana blog 1: The Challenges Facing Primary Education.
Global learning experiences for Teachers.

Visit Link Community Development Scotland’s website.