Mr Francis Baataar is the head teacher of Nabugan DA JHS, a newly established school. Francis has more than twenty five years of teaching experience and has also received an award as regional best teacher. Currently, he teaches about sixty students.
Interestingly, for someone who would end up being a teacher, Francis’ parents were not enthusiastic about him having a formal education. His grandmother was the only one who encouraged him to go to school, but it was tough going and sometimes he had to work as a head-load carrier in order to get money to pay for school.
As a child. he admired one reverend father and aspired to be a priest when he was older. So, after sixth form, he focused on becoming a priest. However during his national service, he was made an assistant headmaster by the district director, due to his hard work and diligence. Later, the district director advised him to enroll in teacher training college and also sponsored his training.
Mr. Baataar prefers teaching science because it is very practical and therefore the lessons become “real” for the students. According to him, one benefit of being a STEM educator is the respect he gains in his community when his students excel in their examinations. Furthermore, he believes that by teaching the young ones how to make use of the resources around them, they are being prepared to solve environmental problems.
Francis is a member of GAST and is the local organizer for Nandom. He has had the opportunity to organize training sessions for teachers to improve their skills, which experience he describes as his most positive experience as a teacher. His membership of GAST also helps him to gain and share knowledge on STEM through workshops.
Mr Baataar believes that ignorance is the main barrier preventing human beings from making their environment a better place to live in. He believes that science can be used to remedy the situation. That is what inspires him to teach his students: he wants them to contribute to the development of their communities and country.
Mr. Baataar saw the JUNEOS Challenge as a golden opportunity. As such, he trained his students so that they could perform well in the challenge. Their experiment was on making a local inflator from local materials that could be used by residents. He also used the experiment as an opportunity to teach his students that “there’s no magic, but rather the application of scientific principles”.
He has benefited immensely from his participation in the JUNEOS Challenge, and has intensified his teaching and makes sure he provides much detail when teaching. Due to this, the interest of his students in science has grown.
Francis believes that when the JUNEOS Challenge is integrated into the Ghanaian education system it will be a great help to students. He is grateful to the JUNEOS team for giving him inspiration and drawing his attention to things he needs to do in order to teach effectively.
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Article by Kofi Konadu Berko.
Kofi Konadu Berko is passionate about education and youth development. He holds a B.A in Adult Education and Human Resource Studies from the University Of Ghana. His works have been published in the historic Afroyoung Adult anthology titled Waterbirds On the Lakeshore, Adabraka: Stories From the Center Of the World, Tampered Press and the Kalahari Review. He blogs at obolokofi.wordpress.com
