School Visits
During our stay in
In May 2007, the Richard Akwei Memorial School became the recipient of a Special Needs Education Center, the first school within the Ghana Education Service to be endowed with such a facility. The Center provides resources for students with special learning needs, including an educational psychologist who uses drama therapy as well as more traditional psychotherapy. The primary source of funding for the project was the British High Commission in Accra, which presented the center as a “birthday present” from the United Kingdom to Ghana. The Richard Akwei Memorial School also receives outside funding from USAID, the British Navy, and a range of private companies, which is reflected by the high standard of resources and the school facility. In contrast, the Ayalolo School, located a short distance from Richard Akwei Memorial, was noticeably financially strapped. In speaking to students in Accra and Elmina, we learned that while public education for youth is an ostensibly free service of the Ghanaian government, students are expected to privately pay for their uniforms, books, supplies, and transportation, which, in poor communities, often add up to a prohibitively high cost. These brief visits into Accra’s schools left the dual impressions of the brightness and creative energy of students, juxtaposed with the challenge of effective education with inadequate resources.