Conclusions

I thought it might be nice to round off my blog with a few thoughts that I brought home with me, so here goes:

1. Malaria is never funny- one should not joke about it...
2. Private schools for the poor-
• Are widespread in Ghana, meaning that they are local and easily accessible to those living near to them
• Are better than the government schools in terms of resources, tuition time, the ways in which they strive to improve and innovate, and the headteachers are never asleep
• Are no worse than government schools in terms of the quality of the buildings/infastructure
• Charging 1cedi a day is a great idea- it is a manageable amount to most families, and does not require them to save up any large amounts of money, for example for books, stipends or uniforms (which are included in the daily charge)
3. Eating chicken and rice almost every day gets boring, and makes you not want to eat it again for a very ling time.
4. Child Labour is not always bad-
• LOTS of children at private and government schools work as well as going to school
• They mainly sell, and a lot of them do so with their parents, but some work independently
• They do it in good heart- to get money for their parents or to help their parents, for no other reason. I think that in most cases it is lucky that their parents allow them to go to school during the day and only work afterwards, this is a good comprimise, and the income their work provides probably allows them to go to school.
• Every child I interviewed also did lots of jobs within their home to help their parents, and usually got money for doing this- I suspect this is the money they used for school
• Every child also placed a much greater value on their education than on working, and would prefer not to work, and to devote more time to schooling, but they don't have the luxury of this option.
• Almost every child wanted to stay in school until University- they place a great value on education and see it as a route out of poverty- this is not a secret, it is a widespread belief.
5. Anything can be taught with the assistance of a good textbook and a useful prefect...
6. Career Aspirations-
• The main jobs which students aspire to include- Nurse, Doctor, Lawyer, Journalist and Footballer
• These positions are affluent and indicate the students desire to be well educated and to do well in life
• The teachers indicated that they and their peers also aspired to similar positions when they were at school, and many of them in discussion indicated that they still wished to pursue their education further and seek even more affluent forms of employment.
7. Ghana is lovely, beautiful and very friendly.
8. Tro-tro's are a great way to travel- particularly if you get the front seat.
9. Education is highly valued among all of the Ghanaians I met, potentially more so than it is in the UK- expecially by the students. I think that students in England don't know how lucky they are to have a great government education system, and potentially take it for granted- if education wasn't as easy to obtain maybe they would appreciate it more, and take advantage of the opportunities they have got. I think we have lost sight of the value of education in the UK.
10. Nothing will break my love for Africa, and I will hopefully be going back sometime soon.

I had an amazing experience and I hope that you have enjoyed reading my blog!