Day 6, Pt 1: Ghana's Minister of Education Engages US Students through Storytelling

By Johneé Wilson, 19 March 2023

"I was teaching mathematics [in Los Angeles, California schools], making sure it was fun [because] if you hate math, math is going to hate you...One year I was voted the funniest teacher of the year."

-Hon. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum, MOE, Ghana

Photo Credit: MOE Staff

On Wednesday afternoon, March 15, 2023, thirteen American University (AU) students and two professors moved quickly from the US Embassy of Accra, Ghana to the office of the Free SHS Secretariat (Ministry of Education) to meet with the Minister of Education (MOE), Hon. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum. Upon arrival, we were guided into a small office and greeted by an MOE senior staff member. He explained that the MOE was the largest ministry in Ghana with "16 public universities, 103 private universities, 10 technical universities, and 46 colleges of education, 3 of which are private." Our cohort learned that most of the educational institutions in Ghana are STEM focused, so new technology will be socioeconomically and cross-generationally accessible. The country is also introducing robotics into its curriculum.

By the time we were seated in a larger conference room facing the Hon. Dr. Adutwum, we understood that Ghana's general population prefers public education over private education, TVERT (tech, vocation, education, recreation, trade) and STEM programs are a high priority, and 40% of PhD students study abroad in China, where trade relations are strong between the two countries.

Ghana's Compulsory Free Basic Education Policy is being implemented to ensure basic education is free through the primary, middle, and secondary levels. I asked, "How is the MOE administration connecting information to caretakers and parents?" From this point of departure, we learned that the MOE was enlightening families about educational opportunities through community collaboration and that the first time the policy was implemented, 5,000 children were reached.

Photo Credit: MOE Staff

(Top Row, R to L: Hon. Dr. Yaw Osei Adutwum (MOE), American University guests w/ MOE | Bottom Row, R to L: Dr. Kwame Nuamah, Houssaynatou Barry, Dr. Ernest Ogbozor, MOE, MOE Advisor, Gassiatu G, Johneé Wilson, Michaela Aptt)

Hon. Dr. Adutwum, was an exemplar of authenticity. "Who here is from California? I was expecting someone to say they are from California. I lived in California for 26 years," he began. Instead of a lecture, The MOE began our dialogue with storytelling. The beginning of his career in education began as a graduate student at the University of La Verne, teaching mathematics within the Greater Los Angeles public school system--specifically the Watts neighborhood

In the 1980s and 1990s, crime was high in Watts, Los Angeles. "I made sure they [students] were talking constructively. I was teaching mathematics, making sure it was fun [because] If you hate math, math is going to hate you. One year I was voted the funniest teacher of the year. I told my students, 'I grew up with Snoop Dogg. He was having a bad influence on me. My parents sent me to Africa and I came back with an accent." Although it was an allegory, the American pop culture / hip-hop reference elicited laughter from AU students and professors. The Hon. Dr. Adutwum shared that he opened the New Design Charter School in LA with a $150K grant, enforced a year-around school model, and increased enrollment because caretakers wanted this type of structure for their children, which defies the banking system of education. Soon he purchased a nunnery near Downtown LA and converted it into a school.

Photo Credit: MOE Staff

(Top Row, R to L: Dr. Ernest Ogbozor w/ MOE, Signage on the MOE grounds, Dr. Kwame Nuamah w/ MOE | Bottom Row, R to L: Houssaynatou Barry, Katherine Wheeler, Jordyn PIgott, Hanna Langenfeld, Paige Botjer)

The MOE continued, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, Ghana's president, "couldn't believe a guy from Ghana was building schools in LA. [He thought] I should come back to Ghana and help build the education system here." Ghana had been independent for over 50 years, but poor children still couldn't go to school. "I wanted to make sure high schools were free [in Ghana]. America was able to do it first with free public education, making it close to egalitarian as possible. People were able to pull themselves by the bootstraps up out of poverty because of free public secondary education." The solution would be to implement year-around school because Ghana's schools could increase enrollment by 50% using the same existing facilities.

Nana Addo was campaigning for presidency when he attempted to recruit the Hon. Dr. Adutwum; he hadn't won yet. However, his logic was that America would be fine without the Hon. Dr. Adutwum, but Ghana needed him. He said yes. According to the MOE, the concept of year-around school has increased matriculation for primary, middle, and secondary school students from 800K to 1.4M in Ghana since 2020. His closing remarks to our group of AU students were, "We want to make sure we grow this nation in a way that even in this economy, education is still funded."