It all started with three letters… I didn’t even know that Kute had a Post Office? But nonetheless, I was handed three letters from my counter part one Sunday afternoon a few weeks ago. The letters were all asking me if I would teach in their schools. Teach to the JHS (Junior High School) students. One school was asking about having me teach integrated science and another was asking about teaching ICT (Information, Communication and Technology)… Yay?! The third… I don’t remember.

I went to visit two of the schools, introduce myself to the Headmaster, the staff and the students. It was all arranged: Mondays and Fridays teaching ICT at the public JHS in Kute and on Wednesday and Thursdays teaching integrated science at the Roman Catholic JHS in Kute (back to Catholic School… reminding me of kindergarten).

I arrived that Thursday to the Roman Catholic School ready to teach science… well sort of. I asked if they (the students) had books… NO. I asked if they had a teacher’s book for me at least… only for the form two class (7^th grade equivalent) and not one for the form three (8^th grade equivalent). Ok, well who, what, where, when, why and how and I’m suppose to teach these kids? (science, not my best subject in school, and I haven’t been in a science class in well, since my high school days… 6-10 years ago) So I went to the class and tried to teach, but the first topic for the form two was elements, protons, neutrons, ions, charges… there wasn’t even a picture of the periodic table… (And lets be honest I remember all this. I know that there are two parts hydrogen to one part oxygen and that the symbol for gold is Au, and I have a general concept of all of this, but can I really explain this topic to kids that speak English as a second language, that don’t have school books and the resources to go look things up, or people to ask further questions to?)

The following Monday I arrived at the Public JHS in Kute, I was luckily handed a teacher’s book for form 1, 2, and 3 but as I started to flip through the books I realized that they want me to teach all about the computer… word processing, the internet, other forms of technology. (I can teach most of this, I mean I’m not the best on computers, but I know enough about Word, I can navigate the internet pretty well, and well yes I have an iPod, digital camera and I’m somewhat comfortable in the technology department)… The head master looked at me and then asked if I would then be holding classes in my house (A: my ‘room’ isn’t big enough to hold 20 to 30 students, and B: I’m not using my computer to teach and C: well this is interesting?) Most of these students have never seen a computer, don’t even know what the Internet is, but yet Ghana just passed a law that ALL students must learn ICT and pass it to move onto the next subject… so what are smaller, rural villages going to do when they don’t have the resources to teach these kids.

How can this be when both schools that I’m teaching at don’t have computers, let alone electricity? I can draw a picture of a computer on the chalkboard, but when it comes to the part of teaching how to type in Word or navigate the Internet well I can’t teach that without an actual computer. I can’t ask these students to take the Tro to Hohoe and pay to use the Internet at an Internet café.

It goes to show that education for the most part is put second. Families from the most rural villages don’t think that it’s necessary for their kids to go to school. Some teachers don’t care about their jobs and if they are in no mood to teach… well they don’t. It also frustrating because there is only one class for each grade level (luckily there are two schools in my village). But both of my form two classes have about 40 to 50 students (depending on the day). They are cramming three into a desk. Comfortable? Optimal for learning? I think not.