An African Opportunity
In late November, I visited Lomé, Togo, to meet with staff and board members of the Pan African Teachers' Centre (PATC). This organization is the subject of considerable interest within Africa and, increasingly, among some of the western nations that support education development projects. Our Association, with the generous support of you, the members, figures prominently in PATC's current and future affairs. As well as providing regular funding for the Centre's operations and programs, the ATA has undertaken a cooperative venture to develop and maintain websites for PATC and its African teacher organization members, and to provide training in Africa on website use and development. The websites will be established by ATA Computer Council (ATACC) members working with PATC staff. The websites will be housed on ATACC's server. Computer council members will serve as resource persons for the Africa training workshops.
One may wonder about the usefulness of establishing websites for African organizations that, in most cases, have restricted access to the World Wide Web and all its opportunities. An answer may be found in the rush of technology that bypasses the need for expensive copper wire and optic fiber as mediums of information transmission. To paraphrase a famous bit of advice from the movie The Graduate: "Wireless, my boy, the future is in wireless." Everywhere I travelled in Lomé, I saw people busily talking on cellphones. I have a photograph on display in Barnett House, taken a few years ago in Lomé, showing two teachers seated in a student desk and marking final examinations. In the middle of the desk is the ubiquitous black vinyl holster with its cellphone held securely inside.
One day during my visit, I was on the veranda of the house that is home for some of the PATC staff. At the gate to the yard, Kokuvi, the young man who looks after the house, was talking to the two girls who appear on the cover of this issue of the magazine. The older girl's name is Afi. She had come, along with her charge Paula, to have Kokuvi activate a calling card for the cellphone belonging to the woman for whom she works. I thought the two of them made a beautiful portrait. After some pictures, I asked Kokuvi about the children. He told me that Afi's father had died when she was one and that her mother, unable to support her, had eventually sent her to Lomé to work three years ago. Afi cares for Paula and in return receives the care of Paula's family. Afi is 14-years-old and has attended school for only parts of three years.
I wondered at this, about the difficulty of leaving one's family at such a young age, about taking on responsibilities as a care giver to an even younger child and about what potential Afi has that might never be uncovered. I thought about the lives of girl children in developing areas of the world and how they are different from the lives of boys.
Earlier in my visit, I had travelled to three rural schools, one in Adetikope, about 25 kilometres north of Lomé, and the other two in the remote village of Nyive, about 100 kilometres northwest of Lomé, in the hills adjacent to the Ghana border. Photographs taken at these schools appear later in this issue. In the schools, girls and boys seemed to be equally represented, even at the senior high school at Adetikope. They typically sit two or three to a wooden desk, and pay rapt attention to the teacher as lectures are delivered. Resources are scarce but at the high school each student at least has a notebook and pen and copious notes are taken of the topic under discussion. In the rural elementary schools, notebooks are nowhere in sight and children write on slates or even on the tops of the well-worn desks they occupy. Little can be retained of the day's learning apart from what sticks in the memories of the children and that might be reinforced by an astute teacher from time to time throughout the school year.
My guide for the visit to Nyive was Lawsman Boevi, the inspector of elementary schools for that part of Togo. He is responsible for looking after 60 schools in the district, approximately 10,000 students and nearly 350 government-paid teachers. At the high school in Adetikope, I had short question-and-answer sessions with students in several of the classes. In the classroom buildings at Nyive, however, Lawsman made it clear that while I could photograph all I wanted, we were not to interrupt for too long as parents expected the full attention of their children to be focused on lessons. Schooling a child, even at the elementary level in Nyive, takes up a considerable portion of a family's resources and parents expect the best possible return on their investment. Lawsman was very good about balancing his duties as inspector and host while respecting the expectations of parents and students.
What benefit might the Internet have for the children of Nyive, I wondered, and where could a computer even be installed. There is no electricity in the village and none of the school's buildings conform to what Westerners would expect in terms of security for equipment. Solar panels are being introduced in rural areas, however, and the community knows that the most precious resource in the school is the children, not tools and equipment, no matter how exotic and promising they may be.
Perhaps the most useful benefit of such technology would be the awareness it can bring of other possibilities and the expansion of expectations of those who come in contact with it. Afi, for example, might imagine possibilities for her life, follow interests that dwell in her heart, and learn that there are other futures possible for her. She only needs the opportunity to know of them.
© 2010 The Alberta Teachers’ Association
In late November, I visited Lomé, Togo, to meet with staff and board members of the Pan African Teachers' Centre (PATC). This organization is the subject of considerable interest within Africa and, increasingly, among some of the western nations that support education development projects. Our Association, with the generous support of you, the members, figures prominently in PATC's current and future affairs. As well as providing regular funding for the Centre's operations and programs, the ATA has undertaken a cooperative venture to develop and maintain websites for PATC and its African teacher organization members, and to provide training in Africa on website use and development. The websites will be established by ATA Computer Council (ATACC) members working with PATC staff. The websites will be housed on ATACC's server. Computer council members will serve as resource persons for the Africa training workshops.
One may wonder about the usefulness of establishing websites for African organizations that, in most cases, have restricted access to the World Wide Web and all its opportunities. An answer may be found in the rush of technology that bypasses the need for expensive copper wire and optic fiber as mediums of information transmission. To paraphrase a famous bit of advice from the movie The Graduate: "Wireless, my boy, the future is in wireless." Everywhere I travelled in Lomé, I saw people busily talking on cellphones. I have a photograph on display in Barnett House, taken a few years ago in Lomé, showing two teachers seated in a student desk and marking final examinations. In the middle of the desk is the ubiquitous black vinyl holster with its cellphone held securely inside.
One day during my visit, I was on the veranda of the house that is home for some of the PATC staff. At the gate to the yard, Kokuvi, the young man who looks after the house, was talking to the two girls who appear on the cover of this issue of the magazine. The older girl's name is Afi. She had come, along with her charge Paula, to have Kokuvi activate a calling card for the cellphone belonging to the woman for whom she works. I thought the two of them made a beautiful portrait. After some pictures, I asked Kokuvi about the children. He told me that Afi's father had died when she was one and that her mother, unable to support her, had eventually sent her to Lomé to work three years ago. Afi cares for Paula and in return receives the care of Paula's family. Afi is 14-years-old and has attended school for only parts of three years.
I wondered at this, about the difficulty of leaving one's family at such a young age, about taking on responsibilities as a care giver to an even younger child and about what potential Afi has that might never be uncovered. I thought about the lives of girl children in developing areas of the world and how they are different from the lives of boys.
Earlier in my visit, I had travelled to three rural schools, one in Adetikope, about 25 kilometres north of Lomé, and the other two in the remote village of Nyive, about 100 kilometres northwest of Lomé, in the hills adjacent to the Ghana border. Photographs taken at these schools appear later in this issue. In the schools, girls and boys seemed to be equally represented, even at the senior high school at Adetikope. They typically sit two or three to a wooden desk, and pay rapt attention to the teacher as lectures are delivered. Resources are scarce but at the high school each student at least has a notebook and pen and copious notes are taken of the topic under discussion. In the rural elementary schools, notebooks are nowhere in sight and children write on slates or even on the tops of the well-worn desks they occupy. Little can be retained of the day's learning apart from what sticks in the memories of the children and that might be reinforced by an astute teacher from time to time throughout the school year.
My guide for the visit to Nyive was Lawsman Boevi, the inspector of elementary schools for that part of Togo. He is responsible for looking after 60 schools in the district, approximately 10,000 students and nearly 350 government-paid teachers. At the high school in Adetikope, I had short question-and-answer sessions with students in several of the classes. In the classroom buildings at Nyive, however, Lawsman made it clear that while I could photograph all I wanted, we were not to interrupt for too long as parents expected the full attention of their children to be focused on lessons. Schooling a child, even at the elementary level in Nyive, takes up a considerable portion of a family's resources and parents expect the best possible return on their investment. Lawsman was very good about balancing his duties as inspector and host while respecting the expectations of parents and students.
What benefit might the Internet have for the children of Nyive, I wondered, and where could a computer even be installed. There is no electricity in the village and none of the school's buildings conform to what Westerners would expect in terms of security for equipment. Solar panels are being introduced in rural areas, however, and the community knows that the most precious resource in the school is the children, not tools and equipment, no matter how exotic and promising they may be.
Perhaps the most useful benefit of such technology would be the awareness it can bring of other possibilities and the expansion of expectations of those who come in contact with it. Afi, for example, might imagine possibilities for her life, follow interests that dwell in her heart, and learn that there are other futures possible for her. She only needs the opportunity to know of them.
© 2010 The Alberta Teachers’ Association