Politics provides inspiration for an existing partnership between the UK and Ghana

The elections in Ghana on 7 December will be a close run battle between two of the main political parties, watched by news agencies around the world, and one school in County Durham in particular.

Tanfield School Specialist College of Science and Engineering chose to use the elections as a way of keeping in touch with their counterparts in West Africa.

Several year 8 pupils researched and wrote reports on the politics and parties involved in the elections, which were emailed to their Ghanaian partners. The pupils in Ghana are expected to respond once the results of the elections are known.

Richard Seaton, Science Teacher and School Co-ordinator for Connecting Classrooms is hoping that his students will learn not just about politics and democracy, but also about the importance of good research.

As part of their report Matthew, Samantha and Paul outline what each of the main political parties stand for and Vanessa adds that they are “interested about it because they are a different country and they have a different way of life”.

“After already being intrigued to an extent with the politics in my own country,” writes Cain, “to hear about global political issues and events is fantastic...”

The school is part of an unusual ‘triplet’ relationship that exists between three schools in Ghana, three in Mauritius and three in the UK.

Students from the UK have also been communicating via text message after exchanging numbers in October when pupils and teachers from the Ghanaian and Mauritian schools visited the UK.

Their packed schedule of activities included a trip to Newcastle’s Quayside for a lesson on engineering, ten-pin bowling and a look at the North East’s industrial past at the Beamish open air museum.

Francesca Nylalemegbe, a teacher from St Andrew’s Junior High School in Accra is looking forward to reading the reports from the UK pupils and to sending over her students' views next week. When asked what she thinks about the interest shown in the elections she said, “it’s important for young people to know about the world. For someone to ask us about our country, that's great.”

After the elections on Sunday, the students will continue to communicate with each other, sharing their views and opinions and commenting on the results.

How did they do that? 

Tanfield School Specialist College Of Science And Engineering, Hermitage School and Shield Row Primary are the UK cluster of a ‘triplet’ partnership involving nine schools in total – three from the UK, three in Ghana and three in Mauritius. Collectively, their partnership is called Andiusana.

They are in their second year of a three year project called Connecting Classrooms, an initiative set up with the British Council.

The UK schools are currently working towards a trip to Mauritius with a handful of pupils who have been selected on their ability and enthusiasm. Funding is available to only a small number of students and they are currently inviting sponsorship from local businesses in addition to their own fundraising activities.

Read about the elections in Ghana on BBC News.

The BBC World Service  website also has a dedicated Ghanaian election section including interviews with the main candidates.

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