APGSS on Strike

I have just finished my second day in Takoradi, Western Region, Ghana, at the Archbishop Porter Girls Secondary School (APGSS).  There was a three hour drive down the coast from Accra, followed by 36 intense hours of meeting, greeting and learning.  Bonnee and I were welcomed so warmly at the school by the teachers, administrators and students.  The teachers are still on strike, but, because it's a boarding school, most of them live right on campus.  National service workers are administering the exams the students are taking.  But other than those exams, no regular coursework is going on at the school.  The girls are all there, of course, because they live there.  And, while the teachers really believe in what they're fighting for, they are also worried about the students because the third and fourth form girls are about to take the exit exams that determine whether they can go on to university and where they will go.  So it's an interesting situation.

Below is a picture of my host teachers union pennant hanging in his car. There are two national teachers unions--NAGRAT, the National Graduate Association of Teachers and the Ghana National Teachers Association, which appropriately comes out to be GNAT.