Why home school?

I’ve been bombarded by questions from parents about home schooling ever since I appeared on one of Ghana’s television programs. Contrary to the assumptions, there is a growing number of Ghanaians already home schooling their children or are very interested in beginning. The reasons are the same as to why any other parent would need to take back their children’s education: failing and expensive schools, lack of trained teachers, bullying from teachers, bullying from other children, lack of materials, lack of motivated teachers, etc. The list is endless.
People assumed such parents would be western educated or had lived abroad. However, I was sought out by market women, seamstresses and other professionals. The seamstress wondered if her 5 year old should be reading; the school had not begun teaching her. She feared asking the teachers and did not want to appear “too know.” The market woman’s child is always sick. He spends more time in the hospital than in school. She had no idea what the school’s curriculum was or what they had intended on teaching her 8 year old. It was bad enough her 8 year old was not reading, but she also did not know basic mathematics. The gate men at my friend’s house wondered if his sons would ever go to college. He lost all hope. He did not see how they would go to a university from the school they currently attended. The school had no windows or bathrooms. The children either swept the compound or weeded the grass on a daily basis. Asked what he wanted from the school that he was not getting, he answered, education. Well, “why you don’t say something?” I asked. “If you say something, they will treat your children bad,” he answered. It is better to stay silent and not think about the problem.
I was surprised to find out just how bad the educational system here was. A World Bank report blamed the poor education system on teacher absenteeism. Ghanaian teachers spend 76 days out of 196 in the classroom. And when they are in the classroom there is no guarantee that they are teaching. According to the parents and students I spoke to, they are working the children like their own private work force. Students, instead of being taught, are running errands, cooking, cleaning, going to market, ironing and working farms.
To make matters worse, parents are completely dis-empowered. They fear the teachers and fear making demands of the schools. Instead of doing something about the problem, many are silently waiting for someone else to begin the revolution. I guess that might be me.