An interesting article from the Guardian, highlights some of the harsh challenges families in Ghana face day to day and the poverty they live in. The Guardian has followed specific children from across Africa since birth, and they’re now 10 years old.
Read about Hannah’s story, she dreams of being a Medical Doctor and lives in Accra. Her family really struggle to pay her school fees of 60 Cedis (£10) a term, but won’t enrol her in a government school because they believe Hannah won’t get as good an education. Even though it’s a private school, all the children in Hannah’s school share just one toilet between them!
Our Brighter Futures Programme is helping children unlock their dreams by providing quality early years education. We work closely with the Ghana Education Service to train teachers in a play and activity based pedagogy and build some of the best kindergarten schools in Ghana. A key part of our programme is built on community consultation, with the whole school community, meaning local parents as well. Sensitising parents to the importance of early years education and inviting parents to the schools to see the work the children are doing and how they are learning has really helped to build trust with local families.
Here is an example of the Brighter Futures Programme’s impact on parent and primary school teacher Mavis Pokuah whose son has now completed KG2.
“My son was at a private school and I realised even though I was helping him at the house, because I have had experience with early childhood, his performance was not that good. I was invited to come and see the programme in this school as I am a teacher here and when I came I saw that the programme was very good so I decided to bring my son here. I was paying for his last school and as soon as he started coming here when he got back to the house he would ask for a pencil and a book and say he was doing dictation. He will mention the word and write it himself and I wanted to help him so I encouraged him to continue. I now dictate three letter words and he can write them.”
Mavis Pokuah, parent and primary school teacher
