‘Moni’ from Malawi…

I am a Masters student from the University of Edinburgh, studying MSc Africa and International Development. For the next 6 weeks I will be working for Link Community Development doing research on gender and education in Malawi, with a focus on primary-level education. I will be based in Dedza town in the Central Region and will be visiting different schools across the Dedza district. I will be blogging throughout my trip, all about gender and education in Malawi and what I imagine to be general hilarious goings-on while I am here. Here is blog number 1…enjoy!

Blog Number 1: ‘Moni’ from Malawi…

After a mammoth journey of cancelled flights, endless hours in Nairobi airport and fleeting stopovers in Zambia and Zimbabwe, I finally made it to Malawi and I can definitely say that the journey was more than worth it. It really is as it is so famously known, “the warm heart of Africa” – everywhere you go you are welcomed with a smile, a friendly greeting or the excited shriek of a small child shouting “Mazungu! Mazungu!”.

Following a brief stay in Lilongwe, I set out to Dedza – just an hour drive away. It started well – I set off to the bus depot with my 2 large rucksacks, was kindly directed to the bus I needed, bought my ticket and got on board. I was seated at the back of a large bus, a large bus that had approximately 3 other people already on board! It took a full four hours for the bus to fill, at which point it was packed full of almost everything you can imagine – suitcases, bags and bundles of clothing, several sacks of rice and corn, a bucket, a mirror and I’m pretty sure I saw a man holding a chicken! After four hours of waiting and just one hour of driving, I arrived in Dedza to be the only person leaving the bus – I scrambled over the suitcases, the bags, the sacks of rice, the bucket, the mirror, (thankfully not the chicken!) and a few small sleeping children to finally arrive at my destination.

Dedza is beautiful. It’s surrounded by amazing mountains all jaggedly shaped in different ways and is full of tall green trees and lots of flowers. The buildings bizarrely remind me of small English brick cottages, and all seems to have an array of potted plants on the porches.

For the remainder of the week, I have been working in the Link office in Dedza, sifting through policy documents, national statistics and information on intervention programmes, as well as chatting to key people in the field, and I am beginning to get a picture of what it is like to be a girl going to primary school in Malawi.

 

The quality of the education system in Malawi is notably low, with primary education being especially poor. In 1994, the newly elected government abolished all primary education fees making the full 8 years of primary school free for all. Although this has meant more children can now access basic education, the introduction of free primary education has had some significantly detrimental effects on the quality of education. Lower primary classes are seriously overcrowded with the average pupil to teacher ratio being 160:1 in primary 1 classes, many teachers are unqualified, resources are scarce, and attainment is low with only 3% of primary 4 children reaching expected levels in English and Maths.

Among these problems are high dropout rates, which, in upper primary, are significantly higher for girls than for boys. Girls drop out of primary school for many reasons, including responsibilities in the home, long distances to schools, employment, cultural beliefs and practices, early marriage and pregnancy. Girls are often expected to fulfil domestic responsibilities such as cooking, cleaning and caring for siblings. Travelling long distances to and from school can be dangerous for girls, and is particularly problematic for younger children who find the walk very tiring. Many girls are encouraged to marry as young as 13, especially in households where poverty is high as marriage is sometimes seen by parents as a way to support their daughters financially.

From talking to staff at Link, FAWEMA (Forum for African Women Educationalists Malawi Chapter) and the Dedza Assistant Focal Point Officer for Gender, I have heard about different programmes in place to support girls in education and encourage girls who have left school to re-enter the system. Mother Groups have been established at many Malawian primary schools, consisting of 10 mothers, 1 village head, a chairperson of the School Management Committee, a chairperson of the PTA and the school head teacher. Mother Groups aim to raise awareness of the importance of girls’ education within the community, provide counselling to girls who are struggling, educate on feminine hygiene and human rights and provide financial support for needy girls through income generating activities. In addition to Mother Groups, FAWEMA have established a programme called “TUSEME”, which means “Let Us Speak Out”, and aims to empower young women through setting up TUSEME theatre clubs in schools and training teachers about gender-sensitive pedagogy and school management.

Many of the reasons as to why girls do not complete primary education are tied up in deeply entrenched gender stereotypes regarding the roles, responsibilities and expectations of girls. Although the concept of gender is becoming more prevalent in national and district policies, some education professionals have voiced concerns that ‘gender’ simply features as rhetoric and is not effectively translated into practice on the ground, meaning gender disparities and inequalities continue to exist.

Over the next 5 weeks I will be visiting schools across the Dedza district to talk to teachers, pupils, parents and members of the community about issues relating to gender and education, as well as meeting with district officials and other NGOs working in the area, in order to get a picture of how gender issues are addressed within the district. It will be interesting to hear the perspectives of different people within the education system and see how gender issues are perceived and approached in practice. Look out for blog 2 next week!

Lucy Philpott

 

Global Teachers prepare for Uganda

Congratulations to the nine teachers and head teachers from Aberdeenshire who have been selected to take part in our Global Teachers Programme.

 
They will spend five weeks living with a family in Masindi District, Uganda this summer learning about the realities of life in an African village and work at their ‘host’ school supporting teachers to improve education quality.

“The world is made up of countries but global citizenship is about people… This is an opportunity for me to make real connections and build sustainable relationships based on mutual respect and understanding … it would allow me to act as a bridge between one culture and another.” [Margaret Thomson, Head Teacher at Lumsden Primary School]

 
In Uganda, especially in rural schools, teachers face many challenges in providing good quality education. Since the introduction of free primary education in 1997 the number of children enrolled in primary school has increased dramatically and 84% of children now enrol in school. This is a great achievement, but without a corresponding increase in resources, many schools are short of trained teachers, books and even classrooms. In Primary 1 there are on average 120 pupils per class with just one teacher. As a result, teachers are unable to give every pupil the attention they need to succeed in school and over half of those enrolled will drop out before completing their primary education. Of those who do complete the 7-year cycle only 30% will pass literacy and numeracy exams.

 
Global Teachers will support their Ugandan colleagues to address these challenges by employing better teaching and learning methodologies, expanding leadership skills and implementing enhanced school improvement plans. Drawing on their extensive training, classroom and leadership experience, the Scottish teachers will work alongside Ugandan colleagues to share techniques which can deliver better education without relying on scarce resources.

 
Link Scotland’s Programme Director, Dr. Samantha Ross explains that “by improving Ugandan teachers’ skills the Global Teachers Programme has a lasting impact on education in Uganda, which would not be achieved by simply providing resources like books and pens which cannot be replaced due to lack of finances.”

 
At the same time, the Global Teachers will be learning about life in Africa and on their return they will use their first-hand experiences to bring Global Citizenship into their classrooms. This supports key aspects of Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence and is especially motivating for the Global Teachers. “The children will have a better understanding of how global issues can affect the community and country in which we live and this will bring a real life context for their learning.” [Amanda Conn, Gordon Primary School]

 

 

The Global Teachers will be sharing their experiences on this blog as their journey unfolds.

Solar Connect

Knowledge of ICT is essential for Ghana’s continued development in the 21^st century. The Ghanaian government recognises this and so ICT is now a compulsory subject for all primary pupils. The only problem is computers are in short supply. For the last few years pupils at Prabon District Assembly Primary School have been learning ICT from textbooks and most sat the ICT exam without ever having seen a computer. Often their teachers are not computer literate either – this is a learning experience for everyone.

Link’s Solar Connect project is putting solar-powered laptops with an internet connection into schools in rural parts of

Solar Panel at a rural school

Ghana. One tiny laptop shared between hundreds of pupils might not seem like much, but for ICT teaching at Prabon this has been revolutionary.  The Head Teacher, Rebecca,  is aware of how important it is to put theory into practice to make her pupils computer literate. The laptop is shared between all classes on a strict timetable so that every pupil has a turn on the computer at least once a week. Rebecca is confident that next year there will be a huge improvement in the ICT pass rate.

Rebecca and another teacher at the school attended a training session by Link where they learned about how to maintain the solar equipment and how to use the ICT materials. For many teachers this was an introduction to basic computer skills, but they quickly became more confident and within a few days they were able to create and save documents, send email and search the web. They shared these new skills with their colleagues and now all the teachers at Prabon are able to complete basic tasks on the computer. This has dramatically improved their confidence in delivering ICT lessons.

ICT training for teachers

The benefits of Solar Connect go much further than ICT skills. A big challenge for rural schools is maintaining contact with the district education department to keep up to date with new regulations, changes to the curriculum, and to access support when they need it. Up until now the only way to communicate was for the Head Teacher to make a trip into town to the district office to meet with the education director. This meant a long journey which usually had to take place during school hours, taking Rebecca away from her duties in the school. Many Head Teachers have heavy teaching workloads on top of their leadership duties, and when they are away there is no one to cover for their classes so pupils are usually left unattended and not learning. With internet access at school, the district education office can send updates by email and be confident that they will be received. The school can also send reports on school performance and the attendance of both pupils and teachers so the district office can monitor their performance and offer support where needed.

The teachers at Prabon can use Solar Connect to access the latest information on teaching methods and keep their skills up to date, especially important in remote rural areas where it is difficult to access professional development opportunities. They also use the internet to search for information and ideas to liven up classes which often rely on outdated textbooks as resources are very scarce. This week the Primary 6 teacher has been looking up Ghana’s historical figures to bring her history and citizenship lessons to life.

Solar Connect also helps to bring Link School partnerships closer. Now schools in Ghana can keep in touch with their UK partners by email, whether it is to exchange greetings and keep up to date with school news, to share ideas for joint projects, or make plans for exchange visits. Link Schools continue to make use of Link’s mailing service to exchange project work and letters between pupils, but  the online connection helps to reduce the time between communications and keeps children on both ends of the link excited about the partnership. Some schools have used Solar Connect as a starting point for projects on renewable energy and climate change and have been comparing the carbon footprints of UK and African schools.

Communities are also getting involved with Solar Connect. They have helped to build and provide extra security for

Teachers using Solar Connect to access the internet at school

rooms to store the equipment in and have participated in meetings to learn how solar power works and how to maintain it. Some schools operate systems where members of the community can use the laptop to access the internet, print documents, send email or charge their mobile phones. This means people don’t have to travel to the nearest town to access the information they need, and the small fees they pay help the school to buy printer ink and internet airtime, as well as saving for bigger costs like replacing the solar battery. As a result, Solar Connect doesn’t rely on continued involvement from organisations like Link, but is owned and operated by schools and their communities.

Rebecca explains that when other teachers visit Prabon they are impressed with how high-tech the school is, and all her teachers are proud to show off the Solar Connect equipment. This project has provided staff and pupils with unique opportunities to learn new skills and open a window on the wider world. They are all excited about where it will take them next.

Healthy Schools

Disease can spread quickly without hand washing facilities

For teachers and pupils in Ghana ill health poses a serious challenge to quality education and isolated rural schools like Chiana Primary, located an hour’s drive from the nearest to town, are the worst affected. Chiana is in the Upper East Region, as far as possible from the capital Accra, next to the border with Burkina Faso. It is one of the poorest regions in Ghana and one where receiving a quality education is especially challenging. It has the highest number of out of school children in the country and schools are visibly under resourced and understaffed. Upper East is also one of the most deprived regions in Ghana with high rates of poverty and child malnutrition.

Chiana Primary is typical of schools in this region. The school has hundreds of pupils, but no toilets or water source. Diarrhoea and intestinal worms are two of the biggest reasons for ill health among school children in Ghana, causing children to miss school and affecting their ability to concentrate in class. Worms cause malnutrition and anaemia and it is estimated that 80% of rural children in Ghana are anaemic. Malnutrition has a severe impact on children’s development, especially at an early stage, and this can affect their learning abilities for life.

Diarrhoea and intestinal worms are spread through contaminated water and unhygienic practices.  Although pupils learn about the importance of sanitation in school, a lack of facilities makes it impossible for them to put this learning into practice. At Chiana the pupils use the bushes around the school as a toilet, where germs can easily spread into the school and the teachers tell me there are sometimes dangerous snakes. Without hand washing facilities germs can spread quickly, especially in overcrowded classrooms. The children also have to leave school and go into the surrounding community to find water to drink, something which is essential for health and learning, especially in hot weather, but once they leave school pupils sometimes don’t come back to class.

A simple tap can provide clean water for the whole school

HIV/AIDS affects the attendance of pupils and teachers alike. The prevalence of HIV in Ghana is 2%, compared to 0.1% in the UK. Illness among teachers is a major cause of absenteeism, as is taking time off to care for sick relatives or attend funerals. In understaffed rural schools, if a teacher is absent their class can be left unsupervised for the whole day. Children whose parents or relatives are ill, may not enrol in school or drop out early to provide care and to assume other household duties. The division of labour within the household means girls are particularly affected because they have greater responsibility for caring tasks than their brothers.

Link has launched the Healthy Schools Programme to address the issues of ill health which undermine school performance in the Upper East Region. According to the WHO, an effective school health programme can be one of the most cost-effective investments to simultaneously improve education and health. Working with the district education and health departments, schools and their communities will be supported to create and deliver Healthy School Plans which identify the health issues to be addressed and plan to tackle these in a collaborative way.

Some of the priority areas for Healthy School Plans are:

• Supporting schools to act as centres of health promotion and education for pupils and the wider community.

• Improving environmental health at school, focusing on access by pupils to safe drinking water and safe and hygienic latrines.
• Delivering health care in schools – focusing on first aid, basic life-saving skills, de-worming programmes, immunisation and counselling.
• Exploring ways in which the nutritional needs of learners can be addressed, through initiatives such as school gardens.
• Addressing the needs of learners and teachers infected with HIV or affected by it.
• Ensuring that schools are child-friendly to both girl child and boy child learners and that specific gender needs are met (e.g., and safe and hygienic facilities for female hygiene, safe school premises and access to appropriate counselling).

This is the first Link programme to bring together education and health officials, a move which is welcomed by both

A school garden provides nutritious produce

sectors. As the District Health Director says, “health without education is nothing, and education without health also creates problems”. She particularly welcomes Link’s intention to make schools focal points for health within their communities and believes that once people are educated about the dangers of malnutrition and the importance of immunization, the work of her overstretched outreach workers will be a lot easier.

At Chiana Primary the head teacher is looking forward to improving the learning conditions at her school, as well as the opportunity for greater interaction with the community, both of which she hopes will encourage more parents to send their children to school.

The Link 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 Primary School classrooms and playing field

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.

Three Kindergarten classes share this hall

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.

Enrolment has increased because of the Link Schools Programme

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.

Kate Armstrong, Link Programme Officer’s visit to Ghana

Curious pupils at Asisiriwa Methodist Primary School

Link Community Development is a charity of nine partner organisations working to improve access to quality primary education in sub-Saharan Africa. 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 will be spending a month in Ghana to see how our projects are impacting on schools in the rural Ashanti and Upper East regions.

Blog 1: The challenges of providing and accessing a quality primary education in Ghana

Arriving in Ashanti, five hours by bus from the capital Accra, I am welcomed by the Director of Education, Mr Awuni with a handshake and a big smile from behind a desk piled high with school improvement plans and reports from the 58 primary schools in the region. Mr Awuni is clearly passionate about the possibilities for school improvement, eager to share his plans and keen to make me understand the challenges they face.

Top of his list of challenges is teacher supply and training. According to the Commission for Africa, Ghana has just a quarter of the teachers it needs to give every child in the country a quality primary education in a class of no more than 40 pupils. In rural areas the problem is especially acute and classes of 80 or more pupils to one teacher are not uncommon. Teachers are reluctant to stay in remote areas where access to electricity, healthcare and even adequate housing is limited, so rural schools are seriously understaffed.

I set off to visit Asisiriwa Methodist Primary School, one of the more accessible schools in the district, just half an hour from Ashanti. After leaving the tarmac road our 4-wheel drive car labours over endless potholes and we have to stop several times to allow the orange dust to settle before we can see where the road continues. At the school curious pupils abandon their football practice and gather around the office where Asisiriwa’s Head Teacher explains that he is coping with the teacher shortage by employing “untrained” teachers: high school graduates who have completed a short induction to teaching course as part of a government initiative to support rural schools. These teachers are enthusiastic and hard working, but they lack the essential knowledge and teaching skills that are needed to deliver a quality education. As the Education for All Campaign states, “trained and motivated teachers are by far the most crucial ingredient in the provision of quality education for all”.

School funding is another serious obstacle to delivering quality education in Ghana. The government has started providing small “capitation” grants to all schools, based on the number of pupils enrolled, but these are insufficient to meet the many needs that schools have, and often they are delivered late. Like others in the region, Asisiriwa school is still waiting for the allocation which it should have received at the beginning of the academic year in August. As a result, essential teaching materials like chalk and notebooks are in short supply, while computer equipment can only be dreamed of.

Akokofe pupils learn in a classroom built by the local community

Mr Awuni thinks that parents should take more responsibility for supporting their children’s education and provide the additional support that schools need to function effectively. At Akokofe Roman Catholic Primary School the community has done just that. The community leader tells me that they supplied land for the school, built all the classrooms and provided them with electricity without any help from the government. The Akokofe community is justifiably proud of this achievement, as a result of which hundreds of local children have the chance to go to school, but many other communities are too poor to follow their example and their children have to travel a long way to the nearest school. Freda Boateng, Link’s Programme Manager in Ashanti region, agrees that parents should invest in their children’s education and argues that all communities are able to make some contribution, but in poor, rural communities this contribution is often very small.

Poverty is one of the biggest barriers children face in accessing education. In 1996 the government of Ghana abolished primary school fees and the capitation grants provided to schools are designed to eliminate any additional levies which might exclude children from poor backgrounds. As a result, primary 1 enrolment has risen to over 90%, but there is a high drop out rate, especially in rural areas, which means that many children do not complete a full cycle of primary school. Poor families often rely on children’s labour for survival and this means withdrawing them from school. Girls are most likely to be affected as the division of labour within the household gives them responsibility for collecting water and firewood, helping their mother to cook and clean, and taking care of younger siblings while their mother goes out to work. Poor health is another obstacle. When family members fall ill children are often required to take care of them. With limited access to healthcare and an HIV prevalence rate of 2% (compared to 0.1% in the UK), illness of teachers, children and their families can be extremely disruptive to education.

The reluctance of poor families to send their children to school is also influenced by the quality of education they receive once in the classroom. As schools struggle to supply enough teachers and equipment, many children fail to pass exams and have to repeat grades. In rural areas when children are not progressing through school they will drop out as families feel their time is better spent on tasks at home.

A lack of school supervision makes it difficult to maintain education quality. In Ghana the District Departments of Education are responsible for ensuring the quality of teaching in primary schools through monthly visits to assess their progress and offer support. District staff are provided with motorbikes and a fuel allowance to help them reach remote schools, but often the allowance is too small and some of the most remote schools receive a visit only once a year.

Asisiriwa and Akokofe primary schools are packed with lively, excited children who are keen to learn. Their likelihood of them staying in school and getting the education they deserve depends on the quality of their teachers, the availability of learning materials, and their ability to overcome the barriers of poverty and ill health. These are huge challenges without simple solutions, but in partnership with Directors of Education like Mr Awuni, Link Community Development is supporting schools address them. Over the next 3 weeks I will be looking at some of the projects that Link and the District Departments of Education are working on to improve access to good quality primary education in Ghana. For more information about our work in Scotland and Africa please visit www.lcdinternational.org