Week 1 at Tematech

School emblem; students in photography class; front of school; students in textiles class

Mr. Provincal, the school principal, picked us up from our hotel and there started our journey with Tematech.  I like the commute to and from work, it sort of makes you feel like part of the city.  Many people walk, we see school students and people walking to work which might be a "shop" on the side of the road or an office. In the evening we often see soccer games.

What we've learned so far is Tema Technical Institute is a technical training school established in 1964 with the first department of textiles.  The Japanese govt helped establish the school and it has now grown to over 13 departments and has on average 1000 students in the school each day across the classes.  The training programs are either 2 or 3 year programs with Certificates awarded at the end of passing their exams in their field of study.  The exams are mostly administered by the Ghana Education Service or some other 3rd party.  From what we can tell Tematech appears to be one of the better technical level schools in Ghana.  When we first saw the name of the school we all thought we would be working with a computer technology school, then we came to realize that here technical = trade like carpentry, mechanics, construction, tailoring, photography etc.  So it's a mix of what we would consider a trade school and 2 year community college because they also offer Business Studies and all the core classes like science, math, english and ICT (their term for computers).  Some students go specifically to learn and work in a trade.  Other students who do not qualify as well for universities or the Polytechnical Institutes right out of the Junior or Senior high schools will go to technical schools to improve their grades and skills to be more competitive for getting into the higher education schools.

Getting feedback from students on the website

The school has an interesting history that also tells how foreign governments get involved in Africa.  The school beginnings were based on support from the Japanese government including a lot of machinery, other departments were started under guidance and equipment donation of the Soviet Union and also Germany.  Just this month the Austrian govt will be starting a renovation project for the electrical installation, motor vehicle and welding departments including installing all new equipment.  I found this really fascinating.  But in some ways, it has also created a culture of expectation that nothing new can happen unless someone gives it to you.   We've been trying a lot to give a message of self sufficiency and how to think differently about controlling their own destiny.  Even small things like fundraisers or proactively developing proposals for budget support from an organization. For example, the textiles department has really old machinery now, they are still using the equipment donated by the Japanese.  There are many organizations that may sponsor support for what they are doing to advance the field of textiles - especially because it is a unique government accredited program in Ghana but this type of thinking is not obvious here.  

The students we've met so far are really cool, very energetic and eager.  We had a meeting with student representatives (about 40) from all the departments to get their input on what they want on the website and then smaller reviews once we had some content to share.  They were right on in terms of what should be shown, came prepared with written lists and were very vocal...much more so than the staff/teachers who do not use the internet or computers that much.  Most of the department write-ups for the website I have gotten in handwritten form.  For the school staff there are 4 primary computers and there is an ICT (computer) lab.  I guess this is true in any school, the young are always up on the latest : )  Most of the room raised their hand when we asked who uses Facebook.

Kitchen staff makin g Banku for lunch

Our routine has developed: The Principal picks us up every morning, we have a debrief meeting in his office and then go about our day.  On the first day we got a tour of the school, were introduced to the entire staff in a staff meeting.  Our "office" is 2 long tables inside of Mr. Nars-Saam's office.  The chairs are made by the carpentry and joinery department, very well constructed but not a lot of cushion!  We have lunch each day in the cafeteria.  The matron is really sweet.  Her husband and children live in Wichita, Kansas, she is hoping to see her son graduate this year.  Lunch is always Ghanaian food, so far we've had Jollof rice, Beans and Plantains, Red fish and rice and more...dessert is always fruit, usually really sweet pineapple or mango.  The mango we've had in Ghana is the best I've ever had anywhere.

School drumers practicing for Independence Day parade

Students practicing march for Independence Day parade

In terms of our project, we started the week evaluating their requirements against the system they already use called e-School which was developed by a local solution provider.  It turned out most of what they wanted was there, they just didn't know it.  Each user used a very specific part of the application and had no reason to look at the other parts and only a very few people actually use the system.  It's a relief b/c creating a new system from scratch would have been really time consuming and not as good as what they have now.  The website will be brand new, most of the technical schools don't have one, so it will be a good asset for the school and holding up their image.  A lot of my time has been here interviewing departments, organizing and gathering content.  We are trying to involve those that will take it over from us along the way as much as possible.  We felt fairly on track by the end of week one.

Nitsumo Kpakpa He Ye Seenamo is the school motto.  It means "Hard work deserves a good reward" in Ga, the local language of Tema and Accra.