Accomplishing a Lot with a Little

It is easy to pick on Ghana's education system. Teachers lack the sort of resources that their counterparts in more prosperous parts of the world enjoy, which is one of the reasons why Ghana teachers often rely on a system known as "chalk and talk" or "chew and spew" that emphasizes memorization.

But reading through the several hundred letters from Ghana students have recently contributed to their Yo Ghana! partners reminded me that in some respects the current system is very effective.  The great majority of letters are well written.  This is true in the literal sense (the letters are very legible) and of the prose more broadly, in terms of sentence construction and clarity of expression and clever turns of phrase. Students from Ghana who come to to college or university in the U.S. may at first struggle with assignments that require independent thinking rather than rote learning.  But most adjust quickly and then thrive.

This is all the more impressive when one considers that for the great majority of Ghana students, English is a second or even third language.  Indeed, even pre-teen students commonly remark that they can read or speak or write in two or three languages.

Clearly, then, a thirst for learning and access to dedicated teachers counts for a great deal.