Going to school in Ghana

And there I was, strengthened for the day with porridge and fruit salad, going to the second project village with Sofia and Joseph, knowing that these two would leave for Accra around noon, and I would stay on to continue my assignment in the village. The sky was white and hazy, as it had been since I arrived in Ghana, as it was the season of 'Hamatan', a northwind bringing dusty clouds from the Sahara.

We arrived in the project village and went to meet the e-reader class of the primary school, crossing a schoolyard populated by goats, chicken and countless Ghanaian primary school children enjoying their break.We met Ms Jaqueline, the classes teacher, in her class, which she was just finishing, and I was introduced. Impressively, all children stood up and greeted me, shouting a hearty 'Good morning, Mr. Carl!' We collected a blackboard overview on how many children had connectivity problems, in this class we counted seven. Ms Jaqueline asked us, if we could collect the e-readers later, as the class was still going to work with them over the course of the day and we agreed that I would come back to do that.

On our way to class, I received a first positive notice from Vodafone that the tests with the SIM-IDs collected yesterday were making good progress and that a theory was beginning to form. Our contacts asked for more sample data, which we were about to collect during that morning. We collected data and devices from both Junior High School and Senior High School, and even from one of the teachers, who had also been experiencing connectivity problems. This task kept us busy all morning. We met wonderful and friendly people, teachers and students alike, had many good chats, and I took a fair amount of pictures.

After having said goodbye to Joseph and Sophia, I went back to the primary school and Ms Jacqueline's class. We had decided I should sit in for the last 90 minutes of the class, as part of Worldreader's class observation initiative. I witnessed a Science and an English class, and soon noticed, that I was not the only intrigued spectator: at all of the windows students from other classes had assembled, peering in at the e-reader class . The students had prepared the Science class with their e-readers at home, and were answering questions like 'What part of the human body is used for receiving oxygen'. Each correct answer was awarded points, to either 'boys' or 'girls', both had a leaderboard on the blackboard, keeping track of their scored points. During the English class students worked with the e-readers directly, by taking turns reading from them. After finishing the story (about an old, poor woman and her unthankful, unsupportive sons), students were asked to name words that they had learned, while reading the story, spell them, and to explain their meaning. This tasked proved to be only a little challenge, as students seemed to be avid users of the e-readers built-in dictionary's. Correct answers allowed students to score points for the boys and girls teams.  Later, Ms Jacqueline asked questions on the content of the story and, again, students could score points.  I was fascinated by the level of enthusiasm this 'gamified' learning experience provided. The mystery was revealed at the end of the class, when the winners were announced:

Boys had collectively scored 60 points, while girls had accumulated a mere 52. Their price, both simple and rewarding, was the following: the team who had lost would be doomed to sweep the classroom, every day of the week to come.