Project Overseas – Pride of CTF and Affiliated Federations in Making a Difference in the World by Improving the Quality of Education

“When a yam doesn’t grow, well, we don’t blame it: It is because of the soil.” The Ghanaians believe that in order to grow healthy crops one needs to nurture and sustain the quality of the soil. Equivalently, the Ghanaians affirm that the quality of education depends on providing effective and consistent professional development to teachers. Worthy of note, Ghanaian values can be beautifully expressed through some of their popular proverbs: “The human being is more beautiful than gold.” They consider Ghana’s people as the country’s most important resource in spite of the country’s popular label, the “Gold Coast.” “Treat your guest as a guest for two days and on the third day, give him a hoe.” They believe in hard work and respect for an honest living. “Just as someone cared for you when you were growing your teeth, so too should you care for them when they are losing teeth.” They have respect for their elders.   The summer of 2013 marked my second voyage to West Africa with Project Overseas (PO). This time I had the privilege of journeying to the beautiful garden cities of Ghana. Geographically, Ghana is nestled with Burkina Faso to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the south, Cote D’Ivoire to the west and Togo to the east. The people are very hospitable, friendly and peace loving. While undergoing a recent political disagreement, the citizens opted for an amicable settlement in court rather than escalation via conflict and violence. This tolerance and perseverance for peace has led to a stable and safe country environment, attracting many NGOs and private companies to further develop Ghana’s great resources. Project Overseas is a joint endeavor of the Canadian Teachers’ Federation (CTF), participating member organizations of CTF, and many of CTF’s overseas partner organizations. The primary purpose of PO is to improve the quality of education around the world. It is an excellent and uplifting program which provides Canadian teachers with an opportunity to deliver professional development workshops to fellow teachers in developing countries. Imagine the prospect of 1earning, teaching, living and working abroad with a team of Canadian colleagues with an aim to enhance the quality of education for some of the world’s most marginalized peoples. Paired with a dynamic itinerary, all expenses paid, and the chance to make a remarkable difference, it sounds unbelievable does it not? Let me assure you that you can actually take advantage of this offer by applying before November of each year to CTF through your local federation.

The organization that my team and I worked with in Ghana was the Ghana National Association of Teachers (GNAT) in Accra. This year as a Project Lead, I wasfortunate in my responsibility to help coordinate a diverse team of Canadian teachers from Saskatoon, Edmonton, and Barrie, alongside our Ghanaian co-tutors. Together, we provided professional development workshops to approximately 100 teachers from Kumasi, Koforidua, and Ho in the areas of literacy, numeracy and gender equality. Our lessons were pre-planned with our Ghanaian co-tutors who met with us in Accra. Through fruitful consultations and considerations, our co-tutors aided us in stipulating the unique needs for each of the regions on our agenda. We were most impressed and appreciative of our co-tutors’ knowledge, expertise and skills, as well as ability to enhance the facilitation of our workshops. The old African proverb “It takes a village to educate a child” is discernible in Ghana. It is from this belief that the Nkabom Teachers’ Action for Learning Project originated. The project, designed to provide useful professional development for teachers throughout Ghana, specifically targets teachers working in rural areas with restricted resources and limited access to professional learning opportunities. Through this project, communities and their schools have been mobilized to write action plans for the consistent improvement of education in Ghana. CTF has a long standing history of collaboration with both GNAT and the Pan African Teachers Centre (PATC) in the development and implementation of projects designed to improve learning in African schools. In addition to sharing hands-on teaching strategies, Project Overseas truly promotes the added benefits of gaining skills and knowledge from teaching and learning together. One of the more enriching moments for the teachers we worked with across the three different regions in Ghana was the use of supplementary readers produced by CTF, GNAT and PATC. The most popular books we used in our literacy lessons were Abu, The Lazy Boy and Musa Becomes Prefect. Many of these teachers have no reading materials in their classrooms and were delighted to acquire multiple copies of these texts for their students.

My team and I encountered Ghanaian teachers who are hardworking, competent and passionate about ongoing learning opportunities towards becoming ever more effective and qualified educators. Unfortunately, if it was not for their union, GNAT, many of these teachers would not be receiving any professional development or as often is the case, respect in their communities. GNAT has been working arduously to ensure that their teachers receive payments on time as well as opportunities to access professional development. This occurs either in their villages with support from their locally trained resource personnel or at a nearby city via GNAT’s professional development initiatives such as Project Overseas. Project Overseas has been a champion since 1962 in improving teaching and learning for students and educators around the world. It gives individuals an opportunity to make a difference in the professional lives of teachers and the education of students in developing countries. The notion of teachers helping teachers and teachers improving learning is the foundation on which CTF and its member organizations engage to empower the role of teachers and enhance the quality of education. Project Overseas is a challenging assignment in which you have to invest both your time and knowledge, but it pays tremendous dividends for one’s personal and professional enrichment, and changes your life forever! Shamim Murji is a member of the Peel Teacher Local.