It is rare for everything to go as planned - programming with Ascend is no exception. Our academy program has two parts that work towards our overarching goal of growing Gambian youth. We get kids interested by bringing them on a basketball court and get them grounded by supporting them in the classroom. This year, basketball has continued to grow while we have been fighting to keep structured tutoring going strong.
The basketball element has been strong for years. We have stable coaches and alumni volunteers. Our students have attended workshops, tournaments, and have met role models who have excelled in the sport. Unfortunately, the classroom element has been a struggle. It is no surprise that tutoring is not the main draw of the program. Over the past few years, we have developed a test prep curriculum that students feel has a strong impact in helping them feel prepared for end of year exams. We bring in elements of life skills training and we are working on increasing our capacity for quality math tutoring as well.
At the beginning of the year, Gambian teachers went on strike with the goal of increasing pay. In Gambia, all teachers are contracted through a national public teaching organization and teachers are sent all around the country with little input on their location of service. This means teachers are often posted away from family and sometimes in communities that don’t even speak their native tribal language.
Given the teacher strike and the embedded challenges in teaching in Gambia, we have struggled to hire a stable crew of teacher tutors for our program. The board of Ascend, as well as our on ground leadership, will continue working to strengthen this part of our classroom and tutoring programming.
In the meantime, we have had to get creative. Our program manager, Alhagie, has figured out ways to keep our students growing in the classroom. They recently had an essay competition with the goals of working on reading and writing skills as well as building confidence and communication skills. Students wrote short essays about what they did on the most recent school holiday then presented the essays to the class.
We are grateful for strong local leadership who are able to make the best out of situations that are not ideal. We are continually proud of our students for showing up on the court and in the classroom. Regardless of setback and struggle we will continue to Ascend Together.
