Searching for New Students
Until this year, schooling in had Ghana progressed from six years of primary to three years of junior secondary and finally to three years of senior secondary. About one-third of Ghanaians made it as far as finishing secondary school (according to official stats).
The system has changed. Under new educational reforms, senior secondary school (where I teach) will henceforth be four years for incoming students. The other big change is that ICT (what I teach) joins English, math, social studies, and science as required subjects.
In theory, this change dramatically increases my teaching load. Second-year students have ICT once a week and third-years have it twice, meaning that I teach a total of only twelve periods a week not including the first-years. Under the new curriculum, first years have ICT six times a week, which, in theory, would increase my teaching load from sixteen periods last year to thirty-six. Yikes.
Luckily for me, we don't have many first-year students.
Because education usually stops at the junior secondary level (JSS), choosing a senior secondary school (SS) is a big deal. I don't know how the system used to work, but last year it went digital. JSS students select four preferred schools when they register for their final exams. They then get assigned to one of those schools based on their results. Schools in the cities have competitive admissions, so only students who score well on their final exams will get admitted by the computerized system. I teach at a rural school, and apparently no one wants to come here. Our incoming class is only half full (or half empty?).
There are other unofficial ways of getting into schools. Practices no doubt vary by school, but it seems that headmasters have some leeway in admitting students not assigned by the computerized system. I don't know if money changes hands in these transactions or if decisions are based on other factors. The national government has also outlawed headmasters admitting students except for recruiting athletes (at least that's what I'm told).
Regardless, there is no line of students waiting to get into my school. Not only are we a rural school, but we also do not have a business program, which is apparently popular. We only offer home ec, general arts, and technical (woodworking, building and construction, and technical drawing). As far as I can tell, my school does not do any recruiting.
So, in case you're looking for a secondary school in Ghana's Central Region, here are a few regions to come to my school:
1. We now have white wipey boards in almost all classrooms (replacing the unusable blackboards)
2. Our school is conveniently located…from our district capital; go towards Oda and take the first (paved) left, branch left at the filling station, take the right at the top of the hill; turn left at the T-junction, go straight through the 4-way junction, make your first left at the signboard and you're there! (Note: these are the real directions. Street names, if we had any, would only make things more confusing)
3. Our uniform colors are off-white and burgundy, so if you're into that…
4. There is minimal asbestos in our roofing
5. For a limited time only, the school has a white computer teacher (from America!)
6. We're consistently ranked among the top 5 secondary schools in the district (yes, there are only 5 total)
7. Our school is getting a significant upgrade. When completed, we will have new facilities and programs (or programmes)!
8. We have pretty flowers around campus.
9. Our science lab is filled with dangerous chemicals.
10. Come for the Christian Religious Studies. Stay for Religious and Moral Education (two subjects taught in most schools in Ghana).
11. The students! The teachers! The administration!
: December 27, 2007 7:30 PM