Merseyside schools link with pupils in Ghana

Nov 20 2007 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

A Formby schoolteacher is developing links between schools here and in Africa. Laura Davis reports

WHEN the letter arrives, bearing stamps that signal its origin in a far-off world, even the internet generation is excited.

After dinner last night, the same children chatted with each other using only their thumbs and a mobile phone and checked their Facebook page for messages from friends they made on their summer holiday.

Most of them do not remember life before Google or O2 or MP3 players, so the arrival of a letter addressed to them that has travelled via a real-life plane or boat, rather than along a cable, is something of a novelty.

Several weeks earlier, more than 3,000 miles away, another group of schoolchildren discussed what they should include in their message.

There, in Ghana, classroom computers are still extremely rare so they have to rely on the postal service to communicate with pupils their own age in Merseyside.

Links between schools in different countries are not a new concept, but what makes this example so unusual is that it has been arranged by a single individual.

David Taylor, a teacher at Clarence High, in Formby, has helped more than 40 schools in the North West, including Childwall Sports College and St Bede’s, in Ormskirk, twin with schools in Ghana.

“It broadens the curriculum,” he says, while explaining why such arrangements benefit children in the UK. “It helps with their literacy as they write letters to one another, they learn about another culture and widen their experience of literature as they read traditional Ghanaian stories which are similar to Aesop’s Fables.

“It’s obviously good for geography and music – the Sefton Youth Percussion Group has started playing djembe drums, and can fit in with arts and crafts as well.”

David, 51, grew up in Newcastle and has lived in Merseyside for 20 years. His interest in Africa began years before his move to the North West, when he was an engineer running a shovel factory in Uganda.

He continues to run an engineering business, despite training as a teacher some 15 years ago.

On a return trip to Africa, this time to Ghana, in 2002, he came up with the idea for his schools project. “What became apparent was that children there had no idea of the lives and cultures of people 50 miles away, never mind in other cultures. I wanted to do something to help, so when I went back out in 2003, I approached local education advisers,” explains the father-of-two.

“This is something I really believe in. When I was in Uganda there was a military coup and they were taking six-year-olds and arming them with AK-47s.”

While the situation is not as severe in modern Ghana, many young children end up in employment, rather than at school.

Last week, a senior labour officer in the country’s Ministry of Manpower, Youth and Employment announced that about 1.2m children of school-age are believed to be working under conditions that are hazardous to their health. She called for parents’ support in ensuring their offspring finish school and improve their chances of worthwhile employment.

But, while the education system has improved considerably in the past decade, facilities are still extremely limited when compared to countries like the UK. Computers are few and far between and many schools have just one classroom. Equipment is limited.

David’s involvement in Ghana has gone further than linking schools together. He has been made a development chief for Oframase, a town in the eastern region of the country, not far from the capital of Accra.

He used his own money to buy a brick-making machine, which pupils at the local school are using to a build new block that will incorporate a secure classroom and dwelling for a watchman. This sort of contribution is appreciated by the people of Oframase, who are grateful for help but want to make the difference to their lives themselves.

“The only person who has asked me for something is a man who had polio who runs a pub selling palm wine. He walks on his knuckles and asked if I could get him a wheelchair,” explains David, who lives in Southport.

A £100 donation from David’s mother-in-law paid for the wheelchair, but there was still the problem of using it on bumpy roadways.

“There is a group of youths in the town who have left school but are not yet employed. We mobilised them into preparing the track from the man’s house up to the main road.”

David, who pays for his regular trips to Ghana and the projects with profits from his engineering business, hopes his son and daughter will also take the opportunity to travel the globe and experience other cultures.

“There’s so much you can learn from experiencing things at first hand, from meeting people and being introduced to new ideas.”

lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk