Ghana Education

So I’m sitting in my corner just after waking up in the  morning and my niece in Italy sends me a message that she needs my help with her final year end of semester paper in her high school.  So being curious I asked her what it entails and this is what she sent me:

There are 11 subjects in all and you are asked questions randomly in all and all the topics done throughout. Exam is divided in 3sections or categories,

1) 2 essays in 6hrs and here its not that easy cos you’ve to know much about what you’ve done in Italian literature n in my case i have to know about Law n econs n sociology,  psychology anthropology since they are my main course. Any question from this part can drop.

2) in a different day we have either 3 subjects with 4 questions each to answer or 4 subjects with 3 questions each to answer, and you have 3hrs to finish all. 

3) last test is orals where you can be asked any question by all six teachers seated in front of you, with the school principal and others, all in one room and oh about the teacher, 3 are external teachers and 3 are internal and with this method there’s no cheating.

45 or more minutes for every student but first of all, every student has to prepare some sort of presentation from home to present to the teachers within 10mins and it’s got be about a topic you’ve treated in any subject or something that has sense.  And after your presentation the questions from the teachers present can follow.

Wow!  I said to myself this is indeed education where individuals are allowed to be creative and even before you finish high school you have presentation skills.

Now let’s compare that to a circular going round on whatsapp groups in Ghana with regards to the final year WAEC SSCE. This is against the backdrop of how examinations are conducted in the whole of Africa and the recent track record of the examining body.

THIS IS WHAT OUR 2015 CLIENTS SAID ABOUT OUR LINK 

INT SCIENCE QUESTIONS FOR 2016 WASSCE CANDIDATES
DOWNLOAD AND START SOLVING

BUYING WAEC PAPERS FROM SHS POP UP

1. Always when you need a particular subject, the first thing you do is to make your payment.

2. After making payment you call for verification then you get a code. The code is an evidence that you have paid.

3. Then you will be added unto the list to be given the questions dito dito

4. Payment ends at 7:30pm daily for all subjects.
After payment ends we do not reply any client who do not have a code because he want to get time to help those who have codes.

5. Money is 100% refundable when questions does not come.
Buying papers is not compulsory.

6. We will post the first paper for free on this page for you to know the link is strong and we will be posting every subject for free 15mns for the paper to start so that those who dont have money can also glance through the questions.

Dont forget to learn.

For past questions, mocks and trial questions click this link>>>> waecexams.webs.com/

If #you #are #a 2016 #waec #wassce #candidate #and #you #need #a #strong #link #to #pass #this #exams #this #is #what #you #do:

A. Comment with the word CANDIDATE.

B. The Whatsap mr.luke on 0249580584

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There you have it. Which of these education systems harnesses the talents of individuals and grooms them for the future in this cosmopolitan era? Sometimes some of us are saddened by the examination malpractices that we so much gloat in and its interesting to see parents even at the lowest levels aiding and abetting these malpractices.

Maybe this has been facilitated by our system being overrun by the colonial legacy of needing certificates to prove how good we are at anything. But upon closer examination there are very successful people in society who have made it without resorting to these academic laurels that we are so obsessed about.

The best classroom to learn in is from life itself and the earlier we realize that even though it is prudent to get the certificate, it is also very wise to apply what is learnt from the classroom in the school of life. Book sense needs to merge with street sense to make a fully functioning individual.

Well, I’ve said my piece you think this thorough and make up your own mind. Let’s try to be influential in helping make real learning possible in our system (it starts with reading) and put in place systems that work for us.

Like I always say it begins with YOU!

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Reading Review

Reading is the quintessential ingredient to develop both mentally and physically but in Africa there are times when books are not accessible to children to read or that there are not enough facilities provided for reading. The average African child especially in the rural area is not socially engineered to walk to the library himself to go and read to fill his curiousity. All his questions about life are answered by his parents who’d rather he put his time in practical things like manual chores around the house or go farming.

The girl child is always at a disadvantage when it comes to education in general and so reading is out of the question.

In this globalized world where children in other countries are doing and creating innovative things, the African child still lags behind in intellect and knowledge because they are generally just users of the products created by other children worldwide. With the lack of the basic and necessary foundation of reading, African children grow up to only perpetuate the status quo of being second rate citizens of the world.

The I Believe In Reading Project was founded on the principle of getting children to read and therefore providing the necessary facilities for reading.  The primary aim of the project was to raise a thousand books to be donated to the Tamale Regional Library in a month. A book collection (and buying) drive was organized and in total 1368 books were gathered in one month and out of this of thousand was donated to the children’s library.

In consultations with the regional library, the project also realized that the library had a mobile van that was sent to outreach districts where children had no access to books or a library but there were challenges with requisition of materials and facilitation of such journeys further into the hinterland.  The project agreed to part fund and sponsor such outreach as and when it was planned and executed. So far we have part sponsored one such outreach sending volunteers and fueling the van.

After the book donation, in consultation with the director of the regional library, it was realized that some pupils, inasmuch as would want to read books could only come to the library on weekends and they were so far away that it had to be an organized trip with the  students or pupils hiring a vehicle, usually a motorking cycle to cart then to the library. In the capital and other cities Ghana where people took reading for granted, these children were usually on an excursion just to spend the day at the regional library to read.  This story caught the attention of The Multimedia News team (Joy Tv)who were in the library to cover an event and the project was called upon to help out if possible.

I Believe in Reading together with the library staff took a trip to the school and donated 300 books to the school’s library. The school population of almost 200 had only 8 books in a closet they aptly named Little Library. In his acceptance preach the headmaster of the school lamented that their plight made them handicapped to provide quality education for the pupils. With the lack of a proper library, students didn’t get to explore that much.

With this speech, another dimension of the project was born. Not only will I Believe In Reading just provide the books for the schools and communities to start libraries, it will also get a fitting structure, at least a shed, where pupils in the community could sit under after school hours to read as extracurricular. What needed to be done will be to facilitate a teacher to supervise and a structure to put the books in, that can be wheeled in and out of storage and put under lock and key. So far we are yet to build any such structures.

Apart from the institutionalized donation of books there is also the facilitating of personal libraries to children within the communities.

Recently the.project partnered the African Youth Writers Organization to organize a Funky Reading and Writing Clinic where 25 children were taken from basic schools in the Tamale area and taught reading and writing skills. The aim of the clinic  was to make these selected children peer mentors so they could reach out to their mates. Each child was to be set up with an individual personal library of 150 books at home and so far only 12 of the children have got the books for their own libraries.

I Believe In Reading further gives numerous books randomly to children in the streets everyday. We spot a child who looks nerdy and obviously likes to read we give a few books based on the interaction and interests. Pupils at a local primary school get a bag of books from I Believe In Reading and HTC Foundation,  others in extra classes after school get reading and writing  materials, the local shoemaker’s children gets books, so does the airtime seller whose boys are always jumping about after school but will settle down to read a good book. There usually is no criteria for these group of donations.

The project so far has been sponsored by friends and supporters usually via social media campaigns. Apart from going round collecting books, both old and new, we have an arrangement with some bookshops that give the project boxes of children’s books at a discount to support the project. Donations have come in cash to pay for the books and also in kind via book donations and even other materials.

Furthermore some Ghanain authors have also been very supportive with their books, some even internationally acclaimed award winning books, for which we have been very grateful.

I Believe In Reading is not done in a vacuum but in partnerships with other like minded organizations that work with and around children in general and literacy in specific. Some of these include Help The Child Foundation,  The Readers Club, Hop In Academy which are based in Tamale and GhanaThink and iHav Foundations which are international.

Apart from partnering with other organizations I Believe in Reading project is supported by volunteers from the book collection point until donation and also at self styled and partnering events. The volunteers are sometimes motivated with book rewards or trips to book donations in rural areas. Some volunteers were brought from Accra to Tamale to participate in the very first 1000 book donation to the Tamale Regional Library.

Sometimes I Believe In Reading sponsors some of the volunteers education by providing books that are relevant to their courses of study since they’re mostly tertiary students, especially in management and IT. The project also rewards on the ground coordinators with current books at Ghanaian authors some even not yet on the market.

For the past over a year that I Believe in Reading Project has existed, it has expanded from just staying in the northern region to support other library building projects and other literacy projects in other regions. But the main focus is still on the northern region.

We are grateful for everyone who has supported so far and inasmuch as it is a daunting task we have set ourselves to do our bit in facilitating child literacy in the northern region and Ghana as a whole.

We are still counting on the support from individuals and groups who find our cause worthy of supporting. Little by little one child at a time we are building a leading nation because a reading child is a leading adult.

They say brighten the corner where you are but like I always say it begins with YOU!

Of Good People and God People

A very reflective post from Nuerki as she chooses to write on those moments of despair when you think you’re alone and there’s nowhere to turn.

More food for thought.

Remember when you were told not to share or discuss your challenges with a certain group of people because they were not part of the family(i don’t mean biological)
“Oh, they do not believe like we do”, “of what fellowship has light with darkness”, “be not unequally yoked with unbelievers” and a host of other pseudo-religious speak are among the long list of reasons were given. Before you accuse me of being borderline blasphemous or turning my back on all I have been raised to believe as a Christian, take a minute to finish reading.

We have GOOD people who may not necessarily be GOD people.

Don’t start the being-a-good-person-is-not-an-automatic-pass to heaven line with me. I agree but that is a different discussion altogether.

I’m talking about people who may not share our faith but have proven time and again to be more caring and supportive than those we call ‘family’.

Sometimes, God sends help and comfort from the least expected of places. A friend’s story that has stuck with me over the years was from a time when she just couldn’t keep up with anything. Work, home, church, social life.  She was her usual bubbly self on the outside but the rope she was holding on to had unravelled till there was just a thin, weak strand left. When you’ve practised maintaining a picture-perfect look for the world, it takes a lot for another to see beyond the mask. Even I didn’t notice and I consider myself a great friend, just not as bubbly.

One day, she walked into work with a cocktail of pills, hoping to make the most dramatic exit from this earth. She sat in her tiny office, looking out of the window but seeing nothing and mentally composing her adieu to life note. Then, her phone rang. It was her boss’ boss. He asked to see her for a minute.
She was quite irritated by the interruption but relieved at the same time because her courage was failing and she needed one more nudge to push her off the ledge.

“Oh Lord, let this *insert his religion here* man criticise me harshly for my abysmal presentation yesterday. Let his words shred my last bit of self-esteem into the vapour my life will soon become.”

He was waiting for her at the door to his office and quickly enveloped her in a big, warm hug.

Every fibre of her being struggled with him but the harder she tried, the warmer and tighter the hug got. After a while, she stopped fighting and let the warmth wash over her. That’s when the tears came. Gut-wrenching sobs poured out of her tortured spirit.

“Hush child, it is well. God knows. You are not forgotten.”

He gave her a seat and made her a cup of tea. Yes, tea makes everything better. All Qwarme’s friends know this. heheheheee… Heaven knows I’ve drank more tea in January alone than all of last year but I digress.

That was all he said.
Simple words.

None of the “what’s wrong; you know you can talk to me, right?; what happened?; who is hurting you?”.

Questions asked more in in the spirit of konkonsa harvesting than a solicitous and genuine concern for the well-being of another. And get this, he was of another faith. Someone she would never think of discussing her life with and yet, that was where she found solace.

If you’re struggling with anything, you don’t need to do it alone. Your “equally-yoked” brethren may not be available or may even be the source of your struggle. Don’t worry about what ‘they’ will say. Find a friend. More importantly, keep an open heart as you wait for a miracle.

It could come from anywhere.

#DiamondsAndChampagne
#ForgetiObiaa
#GoodPeople
#ConvosWithFriends

NUERKI A-B

There you have it. There are good people and there are God people and you can be either one or both of them.

Like always say it begins with YOU!

The Best Profession

Lately I have fallen in love with this woman’s posts on her Facebook wall and with her permission I’m sharing her words with my readers. She really knows how to tickle one’s brains with her mental spatula.

We have all been culprits of berating some professions but lately things are changing and some professions that we hitherto looked down upon have become the high earners. Let me not spoil the story but just read this:

In a conversation with my 5yr old daughter the other day, she asked if I knew what she wanted to be in future. Without waiting for a response, she went on to say she would be a lawyer and a hairdresser.

Eh? “Hairdresser s3 s3n?“, was my immediate reaction in my heart. But I smiled and asked why.

She proceeded to give a detailed description of what lawyers do and how they dress. She even threw in the bit about having to talk to “the old man sitting at the big table with his hammer and a frown on his face”. I believe she got that impression from a movie but what does it matter? Judges won’t be quite as revered if they looked pleasant all the time.

Regarding the hairdresser bit, she said she just likes doing ladies’ hair and making them look pretty.

At this point, I’m thinking “…” Never mind what I was thinking. I repented almost immediately. I told her she could be whatever she wanted to be if she worked hard at it. After all, I should be the last person to protest.

After completing junior secondary school, there was a 6-month break before senior secondary school commenced. Most of my mates were travelling, party hopping, hanging out at libraries(even then!) or just at home doing “adi-das”(eating and sleeping). I had no such luck. Mother mine enrolled me in adepam school. I was at the peak of my snobbish-ness by then and I wished the ground would just open up and swallow me whole. It would be less painful that way.

How could I, this too known, intelligent-and-she-knows-it, smart mouth girl who dey see ein body pass…who cared that I was still transitioning from ugly duckling to swan? In my eyes and from the lips of the boys, I was the finest thing since sliced bread…

Anyway, how could my mother be so cruel and send me to sewing school? Did she know the class of people who went to such places?

I cried, fasted and prayed(yup! I was a religious snob. The worst kind) in the hope that she would see she’d erred and let me stay at home but no! Off to sewing school I went.

What killed me was having to wear a uniform.

As if I hadn’t been humiliated enough. Every day, I would fold that cheap white polyester dress in my bag, hang out with my mates all morning until it was time for school. Then I’d make up some excuse, rush to school and change in the bathroom before class. At a point I even told my parents somebody had been following me and I was scared. Did that help? I wish. They just decided my father would pick me up every evening after school. What did I ever do wrong universe, to make you conspire against me?

I must be very honest, though. I totally loved the school. The headmaster was mean but every time I entered that classroom and saw all the sewing machines, yarns, fabric, patterns and what nots, my mood lifted and I took every lesson seriously. I just couldn’t shake the brand attached to the profession off.

In no time, I was sewing for myself and friends. I was probably the only student in Motown who sewed her own prep uniform.

Whilst getting ready for work this morning, I recalled this experience and a chat I had had with EmperorTonyi (CEO of Horseman Shoes) which ended with how we look down our noses at certain careers and believe them to be the sole preserve of the lower class, the not quite as intelligent, those who couldn’t make it into the university or even senior high school.

Thank God times are changing and we are placing more value on these professions.

Next time you hear someone say they want to be a tailor, shoemaker, artist, carpenter or mechanic, look past your degrees, airs and whachamacallits and be reminded that they are all just as important as the accountants, lawyers, doctors and architects.

My name is Nuerki[corporate trainer, seamstress, goldsmith and part time fake-deep writer ]

#DiamondsAndChampagne
#ForgetiObiaa
#FakeDeepTinz

Need I say more?
Over to YOU!

The African Woman

This is a beautiful story told by a friend of mine shared on her Facebook wall on the perceptions of people to women’s sizes and well how they’re sometimes picked on by other people even unconsciously. This post elicits a few thoughts.

A few weeks ago, Araba, Éowyn, Ann-Platinum and I were in the Ridge area. We walked to the Kempinski to see what all the fuss about the place was. No, we didn’t go in. Just stood at the entrance and discussed hotels around the world and took a few pictures for the ‘we were here some’ album. Anyway, this story is not about services in +233 that cost an arm, a leg and a tooth(in some cases).

This is a major, long overdue post about some Ghanaians and their annoying habit of picking on people over their body sizes. More specifically, their weight.

Right from when we are babies till we depart this life, people always have something to say about the weight of others.
“Ei, you’ve grown o!; What have you been eating?; Obi nny3 ne k3se kwa; Bofti!; Michelin(after the michelin tyre man); Oboshie!; Obolo!; Ok3se3!; Baby Elephant(Yes, I have been called that too…”

Those on the not so plus size of the measuring tape also get their share of choice adjectives. “Atia dongo!; Ahoma tiaa!; #1 ni agbe fa(a half-wiped #1)!; Somalia!”

Some of these comments are made in jest but most of the time, it is pure vitriol.

For most of my life, I have been a big girl. The smallest i’ve ever been is UK 8-10 up, 10-12 down…because I was on a diet of a sachet of tampico and eggus brodus(bread with fried egg) once a day and 3-4 hours of intense dancing every night for almost one semester and nursing a broken heart at the same time. As soon as I healed, I went back to my regular size and my family heaved a sigh of relief because they didn’t have to struggle to find me among a host of slim students. True story.

If you are fat and you lose weight, matter! If you are thin and you gain weight, why? You just can’t win.

There was a time I struggled with my weight because the insensitive comments cut me deep. Even feel-good phrases like big-boned, thick, phat etc didn’t help much. I desperately wanted to be thin. If you wanted to make me cry, you only had to say something about my weight. Thank God for the wisdom that came over time.

Anyway, my conversation with the girls as we stood in front of Kempinski segued into the insensitivity to weight issue. And I realised I wasn’t the only one who had made this observation. We stopped a cab and as I moved to sit in the front seat, I had the most surreal exchange with the driver.

Driver: Ei! You will give me a flat tyre o!
Me: *experiencing disbelief, anger, hurt, sadness in rapid succession* So, should I get out?
Driver: I have a spare tyre so I can change when the need arises.
Me: Never mind. We won’t go anymore.

The girls and I got out of the cab.

Somebody should please give that driver some money to buy a clue! That’s if he’s not already dead from the disses and curses we rained on his head in his absence. We are ladies, after all. And ladies don’t swear. 😉

Maybe you’ve been at the receiving end of the insenstivity or perhaps, you’re a major distributor. To the former, I say if you love what you see in the mirror, forgeti obiaa and be you.

To the latter…
#DiamondsAndChampagne #BeYou #SelfLove #ForgetiObiaa

NUERKI A-B

So there you have it. Plenty food for thought from this writer. Whatever side you fall on it is all about self love.

Like I always say it begins with YOU!