The dynamics of a “Village Teacher” | Ghana

Connecting children to the best education is what she desired most. When she was posted to Aboabo No. 4 Presby Primary School in 2007, it was at the verge of collapse due to the dilapidated nature of the school block. The enrollment as at the time she entered the school was around ninety-seven (97) and later to increased to one hundred and thirty-three (133) at the end of 2007/2008 academic year. She was assigned to teach in primary six. Since the learners were not many, she could escort each of them to their various homes whenever they close from school. One of the things that excited her most was in the evenings where she waits for the learners to come to where she stayed so she could aid them to read. Though she could not access electricity in her room, she tried to make herself happy with her small kerosene lantern. The joy of seeing the children and the school progress was enough for her.

Due to her selfless attitude towards work, she was appointed by the Municipal Education Directorate as an Acting Headteacher of the school in 2010. In February, 2011, she was confirmed as the substantive Headteacher alongside being a classroom teacher. The enrollment of the school began increasing day in, and day out. Parents who had withdrawn their wards started bringing them back to the school because they realized a change in the school because of her initiatives. Currently the total enrollment of learners stands at five hundred and twenty-nine (529).

She employed lots of interventions to help sustain learners interest such as the formation of the school's cultural troupe, girl child club, inter-houses cooking competition, reading and debating club and the introduction of “lesson study”, revamping of the school's sports team which made the school to excel in most of the circuit sports competition. Through her able staff and leadership, she has been able to raise the academic standard of the school and this helped the school to win the first ever Annual Circuit Inter-Schools Reading Competition in 2017, 2018, and 2023 respectively. Teachers attitude towards work has been enhanced. Occasionally, she trims some of the learners' bushy hairs for them because their parents cannot afford payment at the barber's shop. This makes them tidy, clean and comfortable for their academic work.

Her utmost desire is to change the face of education in rural communities using her school as focal point. She has managed to secure some computers, a scanner, a printer and a projector to aid effective and efficient teaching and learning process. Consequently, quality education cannot be achieved without adequate educational facilities as these motivate learners to learn and as well facilitate teachers work. This prompted her to lobby for a six-unit classroom block for the primary session in 2010. With the support of her staff and the community, she organized a fund raising activity in aid of building a three-unit classroom block for the KG pupils who were studying in an old aluminum sheet structure in 2015. She also wrote series of proposals to GHACEM, US Embassy, some financial institutions and finally to the Ministry of Education in 2016. The project was adopted by the Ministry and handed over to GETFUND to construct a three-unit classroom block which is about 97% complete. Periodically, she writes proposals to benevolent people to solicit support for the school to help secure teaching learning resources for the school. She has been able to provide eight bicycles to learners who commute from other villages to access education in her school and two to one lady and a male teacher who teach in a village near Aboabo.

Subsequently, in the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, she distributed some educational materials to the learners to keep them engaged whilst at home. She grouped the teachers into clusters and after few weeks, they followed up to monitor the progress of the usage of those books that were given to the learners and to offer support to both the learners and their parents so that they could make effective use of them at their various homes. She also engaged some of the radio stations within the municipality to sensitized parents and children about the need for them to adhere to the COVID-19 protocols as well as the preparation towards schools reopening. Haven left the school's premises for quite a couple of months and looking at how the surroundings had become, she devoted her November and December 2020 salaries to keep the school environment clean and tidy so that when school was back to session, learners will have a conducive learning environment to stay and learn. In view of this she painted the six-unit classroom block to give it a face lift since the previous painting was old.

Successively, the cost of the nose masks in the open market at the time was a bit high and so she decided to procure a sewing machine together with some cotton materials to sew some of the nose masks for the learners and teachers as well to add up to what government provided. She also patches the learners' school uniforms that are torn to keep them neat.

To encourage the BECE candidates in two Circuits within the Dormaa Central Municipality, she donated seven hundred and eighty-five (785) Mathematical sets/pens to the students in October 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024 respectively.

It is obvious that most schools seemingly are suffering from insufficient seating and writing spaces of which her school wasn't exempted. A dual desk which two only learners were supposed to sit on, was being sat on by three to four learners. A conducive learning environment helps to open collaboration, communication, creativity, critical thinking as well as problem solving. Having a flexible and adequate seating and writing spaces for learners will reduce congestion, aid teachers'/learners movement and in effect improve learning outcomes. Being the leader of the school, she realized that the best way to curb the situation was not to complain but to lobby through the appropriate quarters. Her target was to secure one hundred fifty dual desks. Unfortunately, she was able to construct only fifteen in March 2022 through a 'Go-Fund-Me' initiative. This was a signal that she could be able to construct the rest if she persistently works hard and keep pushing regardless the obstacles. Remarkably, through her effort, her school can now boast of one hundred and eighty dual desks, five library shelves, five library tables, forty-two teachers' chairs, a cabinet for Headteacher's office and one headteacher's table/chair kind curtesy GETFUND.

In December, 2022, she again secured three thousand library books for her school worth Gh.117,000.00. In the same month, she was able to construct a See-saw and a Merry-Go-Round for the KG learners of the school. The essence was to arouse the confidence and courage each time they hop on and as the equipment spins faster.

She is a passionate educator with sixteen years work experience. In 2019, she was coronated as the Development Queen mother of the community where she works (Aboabo No.4 – Dormaa) because of her astute leadership and love to change the face of education in that community and its environs. She is a Motivational Speaker, an Administrator, Educationist and a dynamic teacher who has great passion for developing schools in rural communities, making a difference and changing the narrative of teaching in such communities. Officially she is known as Gloria Anima Jnr., and traditionally known as Nana Ama Anima Tutuwaa I.