GhanaInternational Perspectives in the Early Years

Amadou & Mariam et al

Write down between five and ten words that you associate with the word:

Africa.

Latvia

Malawi

“The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.”

Chimamanda Adichie

Which lyrics were changed?Why?

Colonial Perspective

A view of Africa and Africans by the West as a primitive, backward and retrograde culture and people which needs to be "saved" by western civilisation.

Population: 25.5 million (UN, 2012)

Capital: Accra

Major languages: English, African languages including Akan, Ewe

Major religions: Christianity, indigenous beliefs, Islam

Life expectancy: 64 years (men), 66 years (women) (UN

Main exports: Gold, cocoa, timber, tuna, bauxite, aluminium, manganese ore, diamonds

1. Critically examine EY provision in Britain and other countries

2. Demonstrate an understanding of different international perspectives on childhood

3. Analyse provision in at least one chosen country other than Britain

4. Evaluate the contribution of research from other countries in understanding policy in practice in EY in Britain

5. Reflect on how the different ideologies encountered impact on student’s own values and practice

A Brief HistoryThe Mercentile Era

•In first half of 19th Century Danish, Dutch and English merchants set up schools and began to establish networks of schools. •“Make civilisation march hand in hand with evangelisation”

• Reading, writing, arithmetic

• Carpentry, masonry, blacksmithing and sewing.

A Brief HistoryThe Colonial Era

•By 1874 the British had full colonial authority of the Gold Coast colony•A Victorian model of teaching was established and can still be seen in Ghanaian classrooms today

A Brief HistoryPost-Independence Era

•Ghana declared independence in 1957•The 1961 Act was aimed at achieving Free Universal Primary Education•It made school free and compulsory from age 6 to 15.

• Low enrolment levels and high drop out rates persisted well into the 1990s

Chimamanda Adichie

Education Development

Since the international commitments to Education for All and the Millennium Development Goals in 2000, there have been significant efforts, primarily through reducing direct costs to parents, to increase primary school enrolment.

Antonowicz et al (2010)

Schools Under Trees

Jane Naana Opoku Agyemang

Minister of Education

Current System• The curriculum is employment focused.

• At primary level it consists of: English, Ghanaian language and culture, Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science, Religious and Moral Education and Music, Dance and P.E

Current System• Education is compulsory between the

ages of 6 and 14

• There is a legal guarantee of free education

1999 2013

Boys 58% 73%

Girls 55% 71%

Current System• 56% of teachers are trained

• There is an average of 1 teacher to every 35 children.

• Although there are ministerial directives discouraging it, corporal punishment is lawful in Ghanaian schools, and anecdotal evidence suggests it is in widespread use.

The BRIT School in Ghana

“We thought we were going to help other people but I think, in the end, we came away with more”

A Debate That Exists in UK and Ghana

Anis Haffar is advocating a radical change in the methods for teaching and learning in Ghana.

“The methodology by which we teach our children really, is archaic; this business of sitting and listening to lectures, the time is gone. In progressive societies, children do not go to school to listen to teachers and copy notes. The emphasis is on ‘do’. What are we going to do with our hands and what materials are we going to use,"

A Debate That Exists in UK and Ghana

Similar debates take place in the UK.

Is it easier for teachers in the UK to think about teaching in a progressive way?

Read the case study and consider the challenges faced by Ghanaian pupils.