School for Life 3

At Tarikom C I was introduced to long standing facilitator Ayendago Philip- himself a “dropout” who graduated from Ghana’s Non-Formal Education Division (NFED)- the adult and original version of School For Life, set up by the government in 1992 to combat adult illiteracy.

Philip’s dedication, optimism and commitment are infectious. His classroom (he has the use of a school room for afternoons, after regular school has dismissed) is full, some learners caring for younger siblings while studying, with additional smaller children hanging onto and peering through the open window frames.

As I enter, a welcomed visitor, the class stands and sings the School for Life song with gusto.

The class of learners and facilitator are clearly bonded: humour, encouragement, shared delight when an individual “gets it right,” tell me there is a confidence in this system beyond the skill of the teacher.

Later Philip proudly relates the ongoing successes of his protégés who, after their fixed nine months in School for Life are encouraged to enroll into their local primary school, but not the lowest grades. The grounding in phonics, in basic reading and writing, needed for the Kusaal primers used at School for Life, are sufficient for picking up the curriculum at Primary 2 level onwards and progressing through regular school, learning increasingly through the English language.

Ibrahim confirms these reports, and we ponder the possible reasons. School for Life learners are aged between 8 and 14 (ages declared and accepted as few have an actual certificate of birth date) –old enough to have some personal motivation and drive to learn. Organisers aim for a 50-50 mix of boys and girls. Learners are taught in their mother tongue- Kusaal, whereas mainstream schools use English as the national unifying language. Written Kusaal is completely regular, so once the phonic rules are known, reading is easy. Facilitators use a mix of classroom techniques: interactive activities, songs, questions and answers, short breaks with exercises, repetition to consolidate, and learner participation. Facilitators are recruited from and appointed by a locally elected committee of five, supported practically, trained and funded at subsistence by School for Life at district level. The School for Life year runs from October to June, with classes each afternoon from 2-5pm, after which successful graduates move to a local regular school and fulltime education. The timing of classes allows learners to first complete any family and farming tasks, or await siblings returning from mainstream school before attending.

This scheme, with financial backing from the UK Department for International Development (DfID), has been operating and growing over the last fifteen years, and is a model for successful, low level, local development, cutting across an entrenched failure to fulfill of one of the basic human rights: the Right to Education.