Last week nine head teachers from schools in Cape Coast and Komenda-Edina-Eguafo-Abrem Municipality (KEEA) on the Fast-track Transformational Teacher Training (FTTT) programme met with the FTTT team for the first Head Teacher Forum of the term. These forums provide a platform for the head teachers to discuss challenges they may be facing and share best practices from their schools.
The head teachers shared some excellent feedback with the team showing the positive impact the FTTT programme is having, which included: better behaviour management as the children are now fully engaged with their work; children are increasingly able to work independently; teachers are facilitating and not standing at the front of the classroom teaching as before; teachers are more committed; teachers are now preparing lessons in advance and have very good relationships with the children.
Challenges that the schools were facing and solutions to each challenge were also discussed in this meeting. The main challenges that the schools seemed to be facing were; effective storage of teaching and learning materials (TLMs), over and under age children and hygiene.
A large challenge for the classrooms is that of over and under aged children. Under aged children are often sent to school with their older siblings so that the parents are able to go to work, causing the kindergarten classrooms to become a baby-sitting service. Discussions concluded that under aged children should be asked to go to the school nursery, where they will be with children of the same age.
The case of over aged children poses a greater challenge; the kindergarten classrooms are often used for children who are falling behind in school, who have never been to school before or migrants coming from different countries. The group discussed the issue of having older children in the classes, what impact it could have in the younger/correct aged kindergarten children as well as the older ones. The FTTT team will continue to work closely both with Ghana Education Service and the schools to overcome this challenge.
A very common issue with the schools is that of hygiene, such as lack of drinking water and water for the children to wash their hands. Such issues will be shared with Ghana Education Service officers in order to find appropriate solutions.
This meeting proved just how useful the Head Teacher Forum is for identifying challenges in the schools and together reaching solutions and ways forward. The FTTT team thanks the head teachers for their contributions and their commitment to enforcing positive change in their Kindergarten classrooms. We look forward to seeing how they get on with the areas discussed.
