Progress of the project

Few changes have taken place in the second school term. The pupils were taken outside on Wednesdays between the first break and the lunch break. All the teachers and pupils took their text books, reading books and other reading material, board games, mats and water to Mikenzy Beach Resort. At this base is a pavilion and a grass area available to spend some time outside. So the lessons have been transferred from the class rooms to a lovely spot at the beach. While spending time at Mikenzy, stories were told to the pupils and they could recite poems. Active learning games were undertaken as well. Some of the pupils took the opportunity to self - study. Afterwards, the pupils played before heading back to school. It was really relaxing and a great occasion for the pupils to learn in a different environment.

The Headteachers have the plan in mind to take the pupils out to several excursions. So we sat together and brainstormed about destinations whose visit can be combined with providing an educational background to the pupils. Possible destinations may be the Kakuum National Park and the Cape Coast Castle, a former slave dungeon, in the central region. Another possibility might be to visit a Wildlife Sanctuary Reserve 50 km in the north of Accra. Thereby, the pupils will learn something about and directly experience the nature and possible see the habitual animals in the wilderness.

Nowadays, Saturday-lessons have started to take place. Additional time is gained for teaching. This is supposed to be used to ensure that the complete content of the working schedule is covered. Beyond that, the Saturday-lessons are very useful to not only teach already known matter more profoundly, but also to repeat it for the pupils to remember it deeply. With this, the opportunity is given to even revise the pupils on the basics if they still struggle to understand certain aspects. That will help them to overcome these weaknesses. Foremost, basic skills in written addition, subtraction and multiplication have been taught. Thereby each procedure was explained and demonstrated repeatedly. By understanding these basic skills, the pupils are able to use them to solve problems in mathematics and to further understand upcoming matter that is built up on these. Regarding reading skills, I introduced the British English phonic sounds of letters of the alphabet as aid in reading. The idea is that by knowing the sounds of each letter or letter group of a word, the pupils will be able to combine the individual sounds to form the final word. I realised that some pupils seem to be more confident in reading and also initiated to pronounce additional words of their own choice. But some pupils need more time to understand the principle and it might have irritated them even more at the beginning. Especially one has to take into account the local dialect the pupils are used to speak which does not necessarily resemble the British English pronunciation. Nevertheless, Saturday-lessons are a good means to go ahead with any content that had been neglected or which is necessary for a deeper understanding and strengthening of already learned skills.

At the beginning of March, on the 6th, Ghana’s Independence Day was celebrated. Even a month beforehand, every pupil and teacher had been looking forward to it with excitement. As far as I know, marching is essential and takes a substantial part in the celebration. The pupils take place in programmes and represent their school by marching a particular choreography. The teachers here at Anagkazo Mission Academy started to train the pupils in marching a least a month before the Independence Day. This was very exciting and interesting for me to watch. They even used the time spend outside at the Mikenzy Beach Resort to practise marching in correlation with the others. Unfortunately, I could not be present on the day when the pupils of Anagkazo Mission Academy marched for Independence.                                                                                                              In view of the historical background, three ex – serviceman of the Second World War were shot by the colonial police in force of the British Commander-in-Chief of the Gold Coast Regiment on February, 28 in 1948. This incident triggered essential progress in the struggle for Ghana’s Independence as it is memorized in the editorial article ‘We salute our World War II veterans’ published in the Daily Graphic[1]. The ex – serviceman consulted the British government for the inquiry of having been paid too less in proportion compared with their sacrifices made in the war. After having received no positive response, they marched from Accra to the Christiansborg Castle in order to consult the Commander-in-Chief with a petition. At the Castle, they were received by ‘a contingent of armed policemen led by a British superintendent’ who eventually shot the ex – servicemen[1].                                                  The firm establishment of the marching parade at each Independence celebration is assumed to be rooted to this essential important incident in the history of Ghana’s Independence. The programme of the Independence Day celebration involves not only participating pupils who march to represent their school but also the speech of the president. I was absent from Ghana on Independence Day, so I could not attend the celebration which I would like to do. Instead, I got to know through the other volunteers who attended the celebration that many pupils broke down due to dehydration because the event lasted too long in the challenging heat. Luckily, Issah Addy took a short vidoe about the march of the pupils which can be found here: https://youtu.be/2OC2s-A5J_Q.

Reference:
[1]Daily Graphic, Editorial, ‘We salute our World War II veterans’, 28.02.2018, p. 7