School prospectus

Project status (March 2023): fundraising

In Ghana, students going to senior school (where they are boarders) are required to equip themselves with all the items in the “prospectus”, which is a list of necessities, including a mattress, two or three sets of clothes, some cooking equipment, and other things. The cost is about £100, and is a real struggle for many families. In some cases, children simply don’t go to senior school because they can’t afford the prospectus. This was the likely situation for Joshua in 2021, but Kwasi asked Turbo Ghana to pay for his prospectus and told us he was academically the highest-achieving student of his junior school, and hence Joshua was able to continue his schooling.

Year 2023

This year, we wanted to find a new recipient for the prospectus scholarship, so during our visit to Ghana Mark set a series of live questions which all eligible pupils could attempt to answer in a knock-out competition. After five rounds there were just two students left (second picture), so we decided to support them both.

Future years

Going forward, Turbo Ghana will support two students from Aframano each year with their prospectus, and at least one of them will be a girl because girls are often disadvantaged regarding schooling. The head teacher Mr Seth will inform us of the top 10 candidates based on exam results, and then during our annual visit we will have another live knock-out competition to find the best two.

Kwasi Alare suggested that the award should focus on English language, mathematics and science. His reasoning for mathematics and science is that these subjects are often unpopular in Ghana, but we should encourage their study. “Looking at the world technologies, it better to encourage studying science and mathematics,” he wrote. Therefore, the selection by the head teacher and the knock-out competition will be based on performance in those subjects. However, bearing in mind girls are less encouraged to pursue mathematics and science than boys, we ensure to always select at least one girl for this award.

If our donors like this idea, we can expand the scheme.