Kwatre - July 17

 We started the day with an early meeting with Obeng Kwaku, the Sunyani Department of Education supervisor.  We were then taken to the office of the West Sunyani District (the district in which Kwatre, one of the schools we hope to support with our shipment of school supplies), where we were formally introduced to their supervisor.  What we had hoped would be just one more office and one more introduction to the West Sunyani District Supervisor of Education, turned into a slightly longer visit.  We were finally able to greet appropriate officials and were given permission so that Kwaku was able to accompany us to the Kwatre District Assembly School.

The Kwatre District Assembly School, which was first opened in the 1950s, houses two KG classes in addition to classes 1-6 and a Junior High School.  One of the primary challenges the school faces is supplying its very full classrooms with adequate materials to allow for effective and convenient learning.   Government schools, like Kwatre, are designed to facilitate classrooms of 20 to 35 students.  In visiting the school, however, we learned that almost all of Kwatre’s classes contain upwards of 45 students.  Accordingly, the government support for the school is stretched is extremely thin.  Without a central library, each classroom has a cupboard to house both books and other teaching and learning materials. 

The Kwatre District Assembly School has many ideas and hopes for future progress.  Their interests range from improving computer literacy, to procuring a school library and support staff, to improving their teacher accommodations (living quarters for the teachers on campus).  Their most recent development is a computer lab (or, as they call it, an ICT center) in which students have access to sixteen high-functioning computers).  The ICT center is the direct result of community involvement; the community pooled together to purchase four of the desktop computers, and later petitioned parliament for a grant to provide the additional twelve.  Of course, they continue to seek additional resources to provide for their increasing enrollment.  We were extremely fortunate to have the opportunity to briefly visit each basic classroom, observe the Junior High School students taking examinations, as well as tour the ICT center during our visit.

The West Sunyani District Supervisor of Education on the left, showing the ICT center

Students in a classroom in Kwatre

The unfortunate news from this day was that Mollie was still in the hospital, taking medicine for malaria, but the upside is that she got a very nice private room at the Sunyani hospital and it even had a hot shower to enjoy!

Written by Chelsea