January 28, 2016
Members of the Teach for Ghana team held an information session at Ashesi, covering details of the organization and their graduate fellowship program. The delegation, which was joined by Wendy Kopp, CEO and Co-founder of Teach for All, also gave a series of presentations centered on educational inequality in Ghana.
David Dotse, CEO for Teach for Ghana, challenged the students to contribute directly in making a difference in the lives of children in low-income parts of Ghana. “Only 2% of Ghana’s pupils in primary 2 can read,” he said. “There’s a danger in that. There’s something intrinsic about our educational system, such that it is not enough for us to have just structures, libraries, desks and exercise books. It really goes beyond that. What is the best way that we can truly arrest the educational problem in this country so that one day every Ghanaian child will have access to good education? The kid going to school in Sakasaka in Ghana should have the same quality of education as his counterparts in Accra.”
Wendy Kopp shared her drive to help close the achievement gap created by the shortcomings in lower-income educational systems. “It’s a systemic issue. There’s no way to solve that problem within classrooms alone,” she said. “So what we need is a whole bunch of people who fall in love with their kids like those in Teach for America and realize that we have to make things right for our kids. We’ll invest in your development so that you can make a real difference for kids in rural areas because there is so much more we can do. We can help support the parents to support their kids, we can do so much more than just teach an effective lesson.”
Members of the Teach for Ghana group also used the opportunity to shed light on their own experiences and mission of the group in Ghana. Students also had the chance to learn more about the fellowship program which is a leadership development course focused on building one’s capacity, connecting with a global network of other fellows and making a difference in the lives of marginalized children in Ghana.
On educational inequality, Katherine Reynolds, Director of Recruitment at Teach for Ghana stressed the impact of well trained teachers. “The thing that can break the link between a child’s educational success and their outcomes, and the amount of money their parents have, or where they grew up, or where they go to school, is brilliant teachers,” she said. “So we’re looking for excellent graduates with leadership potential to go and lead those classrooms in under-served rural communities and be that change.”
In the end, the delegation addressed inquiries and comments from the students about the fellowship and educational inequality in Ghana.
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