Project Profile - Abura Literacy School

Abura Literacy School is one of the deprived schools in Cape Coast situated at Abura a suburb of Cape Coast. The school was established by the chief of Abura basically to give the street children in Abura a basic education. Starting with a basic Kinder garden class and a nursery it has grown to incorporate the lower classes for Primary School aged children. Due to a lack of resources and teachers it has become the most popularly used teaching placement in Cape Coast as the volunteers help really is essential in order for the children to gain some basic education. The volunteers help by teaching, playing and giving some attention to the children who would otherwise be neglected.

Hamish Naismith, a volunteer from Scotland (see picture below) has been at Abura Literacy School since March 2007 he explains to us here at the Gateway a day in the life of a Project Abroad volunteer teacher in Cape Coast.

"Every morning I walk to school and just as I near the the school entrance the children come running up and jump on me! They hardly speak any English but they are still really friendly. The day starts with a parade at nine o'clock when the children sing the national anthem and say the Lord's prayer and the national pledge. They then file back into the class and are taught bible passages by the headmaster. The pattern for the rest of the day sees myself and the other volunteers teach the first lesson. This is normally done with the hep of a black board and involves teaching the alphabet and basic maths, helping with the pronunciation of the letters and numbers. The second lesson usually involves the children working in jotters. In nursery the children do drawing and colouring. In the older classes the pupils practice writing or maths.
During the breaks the kids play clapping games, eat some lunch which will normally be little more than just rice, sleep or play football. At around 1 (O) Clock by singing local songs or songs the children have learnt from volunteers.

Abura Literacy School has been a great experience. On my first few days I was lucky to have another volunteer, Rosie, taking nursery with me. As a result I was able to pick up some good ways to teach and I didn't feel I was in the deep end as much when I had to stand up and teach the class. The children can't understand us speaking English but they can recite the alphabet after us. We sometimes ask the headmaster to translate for us and we also try and find different ways to hold their attention. Last week I took over the class KG1 after another volunteer Jonas left. The older children are less easily distracted than the nursery and they love doing their work in their jotters! Overall I have really enjoyed my experience at the school the only negative being the use of the cane which can at times be quite shocking. Sometimes the kids will also go a bit wild but for the most part they are very friendly and I find them very rewarding to teach."