Jerome Chandler Science Resource Center Transferred to Axim All-Girls High School

Readers will remember from our earlier post (Apr 30,2012) that Ghana Together (USA) and Western Heritage Home (Ghana) — with Jerome Chandler as Project Lead — worked with local Axim-Nzema District educationists to create the Jerome Chandler Science Resource Center. By January 2012 term, junior high students and teachers were walking from nearby schools to the Center for their practicums.

Originally, this Center was geared to JHS students. Jerome specified materials and wrote many model experiments to support the Ghanaian Education Service’s (GES) JHS curriculum.  The GES assigned teacher Eric Jim to supervise the Center full-time, a position in which he excelled.

Teacher Eric Jim

Meanwhile, the town of Axim had been working for at least a decade to set up a new all-girls high school. As we reported in our May 21, 2012 posting, that dream has been realized, with the first senior class graduating from Axim All-Girls High School (AAGHS) with full accreditation in May, 2013.

Recognizing Teacher Eric’s outstanding talents, the GES assigned him to lead the science department at the new AAGHS. But, the new high school had no science lab. So, in Feb 2013, community leaders— the Science Curriculum Director for the GES; the District Chief Executive; the Chair of Western Heritage Home; the President of Ghana Together (Maryanne Ward); and others—met to figure out a solution.

The group agreed that because the Center was located in the Western Heritage building, it was not within easy walking distance to some of the junior high schools, and was underutilized. Because the AAGHS is more centrally located, the JHS schools could continue to use the Center in a new location within the AAGHS building.

Therefore, they agreed that the Science Resource Center should “follow” Teacher Eric to the AAGHS, giving more JHS and SHS science teachers better access to hands-on science resources and making the best use of his talent.

Outgoing Headmistress Cecelia Bonku and incoming Headmistress Stella Adjei assigned a room, installed security bars on the windows, and built lockable storage cabinets. All materials and furnishings were moved to the AAGHS.

Today teachers and students are using the Science Resource Center daily. It works because the curriculum for JHS and SHS are in fact the same, but with increasing complexity. In addition, these girls have had little, if any, prior hands-on science instruction.

We think the Center is possibly the best in the Western Region. In fact, AAGHS leaders use it in their recruiting efforts. Thank you all.

The disappointment amidst all this good news is that, with a newly-accredited all-girls high school, a substantial influx of new high school students from other regions will arrive in Sept 2013. The Center may no longer be able to serve JHS students, the very group for which it was initially created!

Maybe fixing that problem can be our mutual focus in 2014!

To learn more, http://ghanatogether.org

Contact us at 360-848-6568 or info@ghanatogether.org