I teach Math to junior high students at the public Atakora school. In the picture above, the three forms(grade levels) of my students occupy the rightmost building, a three-year-old addition to the campus. The six forms of primary students occupy the center building and the kindergarten students occupy the leftmost building, a year-old addition. Upon my arrival to Donkorkrom, the kindergarten building was without a roof; I learned from other teachers that the wind had blown it off during the last school vacation. As a PCV expected to facilitate secondary projects aside from the efforts required of a teacher, I thought reconstruction might be an opportunity. However, being a recently completed public school building, the District Assembly had someone on the job. Walking home from town on the day before the start of classes, I approached a group of men standing clear in the shade looking on at a barefoot and shirtless cohort grinding a large chainsaw away at the base of a five-story tree near the building. Asking for the plan, I was told that the tall threat was being removed before beginning the reconstruction. "Look out," thud, oops. Executive shortcomings landed the massive tree directly on the building that was to be safeguarded. I continued home as the quarreling began. In some light, it's better to have chosen the order 1)fall the tree then 2)build the roof rather than the reverse. Regardless, roof construction and the first school term commenced the next day.
The campus of the school is idyllic, not without help from the students. After an abrupt one week delay of the first term, the students spent the first full week in session cleaning out the building and weeding the grounds by cutlass(machete). After fulfilling their initial obligations as the school maintenance crew, the students sat for promotion exams. The Ghana Education Service mandates that when a student completes a form in a public school they are to advance the next form. And, after completing the third and final form of junior high school each student is to sit for a standardized test, a measure of both the student's potential for senior high school and the school's effectiveness. In practice, students are only promoted through the forms of junior high school if they are viable candidates for senior high school. The first two forms then act as a watershed for repeating students. The school administration prefers to collect school fees from repeating students rather than mar the school's reputation by forcing them through the system. Last week, I was teaching data collection to my form 2 students. To illustrate a bar chart, I collected the ages of students in class. In the equivalent of a class of American 8th graders, the ages range from 13 to 22.
After days devoted to promotion exams, classes began. With two teachers on maternity leave and a third transferred to a different school on short notice, four(myself included) remain; it's safe to say we're understaffed. I started off the year teaching all periods of math, but later gave up some of the form 2 and 3 periods out of concern that my teaching will be attributed to graduating students' performance, good or bad, on the standardized test. After two months on the job, I like to think my confidence and performance has and will continue to improve. Getting up in front of class was nerve-wracking at first, but as the days have passed, routine has provided some stability. In the first weeks, the curiosity of one student or the stubbornness of another could make or break my whole day. The students have a hard time hearing my English and I have to make a conscious effort to adopt their pronunciations and speech patterns. Despite many obstacles, I am fortunate to teach some truly bright yet underserved students. Aside from teaching, adapting to the status quo at school has been equally dizzying. Watching the Wednesday morning worship time, during which all students gather in one classroom to sing, clap, and dance with no assistance from a teacher melts my heart whereas seeing the same students being caned for not providing school fees or for answering questions incorrectly in class breaks my heart. Alas, I don't have similar teaching experience in America to compare my current occupation, but I encounter much that I think would be hard to come by in American secondary schools. For example, it's not uncommon for a disoriented chicken or goat to wander into a classroom as I am teaching. During one such occasion, a student called out: "Sir, it's come to learn."
