EPI - School Selection - Dangme West

Solomon, JJ, and I visited eighteen schools in three districts to look for the best merry-go-rounds candidates. The goal was to ultimately select five. After visiting the eighteen, we selected ten to give applications to. We have now selected the five schools which should each have an electricity producing merry-go-round by the end of September.

Dangme West District: Dedenya, Mueter, and Mompang Shai.

Dendenya: I liked this school a lot. There are 150-160 students and the school will go up through JSS2 next year. They have a library with a lock, so we could keep our power boxes safe. According to the teachers, the PTA is not very strong, but that is typical of the public schools we’ve visited. The headmaster was not there when we stopped by, which is also very typical. The school was built by SOS. The headmaster’s assistant was enthusiastic and said they want to be the first to receive a merry-go-round. The hills around the school are beautiful.



Muerter: This school has 150-200 students. I was most impressed with what *seems* to be the strength of their PTA, from what we’ve heard. Amati, the PTA chairman, seems very involved in the school activities. During our initial visit with the MPA interns, they had given us eggs and even washed the mud off my legs after we walked halfway through the village. The downside is the children live extremely far away, so they probably won’t come back in the evening to play on the merry-go-round. It is also very muddy when it rains, and half the time during the rainy season the kids can’t come to school because they would have to go across a pass with water up to their necks. Also, it is only a primary school so it wouldn’t benefit any JSS students.



There is a three year old rusty slide there.



We gave them some soccer balls.



Mompang Shai: This school is quite large—the teachers and headmaster didn’t know how many kids attend but I would guess around 400. One teacher said there are 50 students in her classroom alone. The PTA, according to the teachers, is very weak and their last meeting was last year. The teachers also said the retention rate is poor due to pregnancies and that there are more boys at school than girls. We found some children studying after school. One child was older but still in primary school and working hard to learn how to read. Some other small children were hanging around and I gave them some Superman stickers that said "Seize the challenge!" I don't think they understood the meaning of the words "seize" or "challenge."



Dangme West Schools: Koni Kablu and Minya.

I was very impressed with both of these schools, because, unlike every single other public school I’ve visited, both of these schools had ALL the kids in the classrooms with teachers teaching when we visited by surprise. The kids were quiet when they were supposed to be, well-behaved, disciplined, and respectful. I never saw that at other schools.



Koni Kablu was quiet and nice, and they took us into all the classrooms. The kids stood up and greeted us and clapped for us in unison. Very disciplined. We visited some people in the village to ask them about the school and community. This is a FABULOUS setting as far as marketing goes. It seems like more of a dry savannah than any other place we’ve visited and the village is very rural with thatched roofs.



Solomon and I visited with some of the villagers afterwards to ask about the school and their children.



It was fun.



I want to carry my children like this, but Florence, my Ghanaian friend, said I don't have the anatomy for it. No hips, too stick-like. :-(



If you can't tell, I really loved Koni Kablu.



The kids there really liked the stickers.




At Minya, the kids were so disciplined I had to wonder if the teachers beat them.



One of the classes meets under a tree because there are not enough classrooms for all the kids. There was a scale as part of the lesson that was going on, which was the first hands-on lab I’ve seen—and it was going on when they didn’t even know we were coming!



We peeked in a classroom and “gravitational force” was written on the chalkboard with some diagrams. Minya was extremely quiet, the headmaster even whispered outside the classrooms and didn’t want to bring us into the classes because it would disturb the teaching. The kids didn’t even gawk at us through the windows. They were incredibly focused. There were see-saws at Minya. Solomon and I, being professionals in the field of playgrounds, were of course obligated to try it out. It’s a tough job, I tell you.