Teaching English in Ghana

country:	Ghana
departures:	Departures can be arranged at anytime throughout the year
price:	From £745 (2 weeks) - £1595 (12 weeks) excluding flights. Extra weeks are £110 per week
vouchers:	Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday

check out similar holiday ideas...

Teaching holidays

Ghana holidays

introduction to Teaching English in Ghana

There is lots of the good stuff in Ghana - lots of overwhelming hospitality, friendliness, religions and languages. There's also lots of music, dancing, action and socialising in Accra - and lots and lots of glorious open African country and sunshine!

Most of our schools are based in the small town of Kwabenya, which is a small town/suburb about forty minutes drive outside Accra city centre. We also have schools in Asylum Down, which is more centrally located in Accra, and in East Legon, close to the city. You don't need any qualifications to participate in a teaching placement in Ghana, but, if you're teaching English, you do need to be fluent in the language and it should preferably be your home language.

Teaching English in Ghana
The schools are a mixture of primary and junior secondary. You will generally be asked to help out with any age groups, although where possible we will try to keep you to your preferred age range. You are very likely to be in popular demand everywhere - in and out of the classroom Teaching the children in Ghana is very satisfying, as it is in most African countries, because the children actually do want to learn. A previous volunteer in Ghana, Paul White, is a qualified teacher and he says, "I encourage all my teacher colleagues to take time out to do a voluntary teaching placement - the children's enthusiasm to learn will remind them why they joined the teaching profession in the first place!" Paul does a voluntary project every summer - "to rejuvenate my spirit" - so far he's also done teaching projects with us in India, Sri Lanka and Malaysia, and is doing his next project in South America.)

Teaching Music in Ghana
Although music is extremely popular amongst the children at the schools, it has been dropped from many schools due to lack of funding. Therefore, as you can imagine, giving the school (and the children) free access to music teaching is a very welcome addition to the school and frequently will be the only access to formal music teaching that the children will get. You'll most likely be based in the Asylum Downs suburb of Accra, close to the centre of the city. Here we have two schools that have some rudimentary music facilities and instruments. The children are friendly and kind of city-confident - they have no hesitation and 'helping' you on the keyboard or dancing to any music that's being produced.

You don't have to have qualifications - if you can play any type of instrument, you’ll be very welcome. You will teach music either at a primary or junior secondary school. Although you will be mainly teaching music, you may also assist with other classes. You will generally be asked to help out with any age groups, although where possible we will try to keep you to your preferred age range. You are, in fact, very likely to be in popular demand everywhere - in and out of the classroom.

Teaching IT in Ghana
Ghana's capital city has plenty of internet cafes and IT skills are becoming more and more vital to employment in this developing country. You may not be an IT expert, but in Western countries we are so used to working with computers that many of us take for granted how advanced our IT skills are. If you have regular access to a computer you are among a small percentage of the world's population who are incredibly fortunate - so use this opportunity to share your skills! You will be amazed just how much you know and can pass on to your eager students!

We work with an IT centre in a poor area of Ghana's capital city, Accra. Regular IT lessons take place at this centre for both local school children and adults within the wider community. As in less advantaged countries everywhere, your help is very deeply appreciated. The school only has about dozen very basic computers so it’s not unusual to find 3-4 to one computer, especially when teaching the children. You may find yourself teaching packages such as: Word, Excel, Access, Office, PowerPoint or Paint. Alternatively, you may help some of your students improve their typing skills. Our volunteers have made a tremendous positive impact in this school.

a day in the life of a volunteer

Your teaching will be spread over 10-16 hours per week, to children of a range of ages 5-15. Although English is the official language, a multitude of African tribal languages are spoken such as Ewe and Ga. Your help is very much appreciated and schools will usually embrace the volunteers whole heartily.

Before you leave, you'll be provided with a mountain of information on just about everything to do with Ghana and your placement, including a Teaching Guide to help you to structure your lessons. Our Ghana Manager and his team will look after you well. You'll get lots of advice about the do's and don’ts of Ghanaian culture, what to do and where to go.

accommodation

Accommodation will vary, depending on your work location. You may live in comfortable guest house accommodation, but you will most likely live with a host family. This means that you get to eat, sleep, work, socialise and generally live like a Ghanaian. Local family stays enable you to fully experience the local culture from the inside. Many of our volunteers remain friends with their host families long after they leave Ghana and in some cases they return to the country later especially to visit their family. Sometimes members of their Ghanaian family have even gone to visit them in their home country.

volunteer travel - what's it all about?

Are you looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world.
Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.

how this holiday makes a difference

The project:

We employ a local Manager to coordinate all arrangements for you whilst on your project. You will stay with either a host family, or family-run hostel, providing you with an authentic Ghanaian experience and providing the families with valuable cultural exchange, which not only helps to build confidence in a socially interactive way, but also provides the children of the family with important conversational practice in an informal setting.

All food and amenities are locally bought, supporting businesses and economy in the area and you will find yourself visiting refreshments stands, or “spots” as they are known in Ghana, which supports the small businesses. You will find that the locals welcome you with big smiles and will always be happy to see you. The schools that you will work with benefit in many ways from your efforts. Donations of important items, such as books and equipment are made possible by having our volunteers on these projects and they are greatly appreciated by all as these are all things that can really help to excel the children’s learning.

You will assist in endless ways, not only by providing your time, hard-work and attention, but also by educating the children, in your chosen subject and your home culture, thus expanding their hearts and minds even further. You will learn about and experience a truly important culture too and get to immerse yourself into the colourful world of Ghana.

Our company:

You taking part in this project enables us to continue to donate financial assistance as well as necessary goods, where it is needed around the world. Examples of donations include building new classrooms, providing school uniforms for poorer students, buying computers, sports equipment, playgrounds, toys, mattresses, classroom equipment and funding school trips and the building of libraries, and more. We also donate significantly to conservation research efforts and the purchasing of necessary conservation equipment. In the past, these donations have been made in all continents and in projects where we work, and some where we do not work.

Recent donations made in Summer 2008 include:

Approximately £1,500 towards the building of a desperately needed classroom in a Zulu school in eMakhosini, South Africa.
£1,500 to build a roof at the Grace Kennet Foundation Orphanage in Madurai, India. This was a donation made to match the fundraising efforts of an ex volunteer. A tree had fallen through the roof of the orphanage during a storm, and so a large part of the building was un-usable and dangerous. Work is currently beginning and should be finished by early 2009.
Approximately £880 to Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation Centre in Malaysia to help publicise the centre and draw funds to care for injured and abandoned Orang Utans.

We employ an all local staff force in most of our destination countries, which benefits the local economy. These range from skilled country managers, who are often pillars of their community, to local labourers and craftspeople. We believe in paying our overseas staff fairly, and many are rewarded with higher than average wages for local standards. When required, we send local staff on training courses to widen their skills. For example, a member of staff in South Africa recently attended an ‘eco-school’. Here, she was trained in eco teaching methods, which she will take to the schools around her region of South Africa to encourage eco-friendly farming methods.

We are committed to upholding strict ethical standards that ensure a positive and lasting impact upon the environments, communities, institutions, volunteers, animals, children and people that we work with. For example:

We encourage our volunteers to make the most of local opportunities available to them, such as shopping at local markets, eating in local restaurants and using local services and transport.
We encourage volunteers to pay fairly for goods and services. We believe that over payment for goods and services or payment to beggars can have negative consequences and result in the over-reliance of tourism within the local community.
We strongly advise against purchasing wildlife souvenirs or anything which may perpetuate the death or cruel treatment of animals for the purpose of profit.
We advise on dress codes and codes of behaviour in all of our destination countries to ensure volunteers don’t cause offence to local communities.

Our aim is to create always a win-win-win situation in terms of the benefits for the local communities and institutions that we work in, for us and for the volunteer. We do not embark on any project that is not beneficial to the communities, institutes or volunteers. We conduct regular volunteer satisfaction surveys to monitor our performance.

Our projects enable vital conservation, research, care and education work to take place directly where it is most needed. For example, the schools where we teach English very often have no other English teachers, and so they rely on us for continued lessons. We kept a Species Survival Conservation project in South Africa afloat until completion after it was threatened by lack of funds. Our volunteers contribute, all over the world, to projects that would not exist without them.

Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people.

We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel.

'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left).

We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays.

We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism.

This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards.

check out similar holiday ideas...

Teaching holidays| Ghana holidays