History

Rata is working in Cape Town, Ghana and India:

How it began

The Ark in Cape Town is a shelter for anyone who requires it; mostly it is the homeless, the drug addicts undergoing reform, the destitute with no other place to turn. The Ark provides lodging, education, and employment skills, and operates a school that has 230 students enrolled this year. The kids are taught by adults who are residents of the Ark; ex street people, ex prisoners, and people who have been displaced and have nowhere to turn. One condition of entering the Ark, is a requirement to be engage in some form of work. A few of them are selected to become teachers. They are untrained, with little idea of how to successfully implement a quality learning programme or effectively manage a class. With few skills these appointed teachers are required to stand up in front of a class and teach the students. These teachers live on site in very basic shared conditions with pay equivalent to $100.00NZ per month. We got to hear their story in 2005. This is why RATA aims to help with teachers teaching teachers to teach.

What we are about: Global Educators

2011 will be our sixth yeart to equip, train and encourage these teachers in our projects. It will be our third to Ghana and the third to India. The Ark continues to develop and now after completeing five yeasr with RATA is going solo. It has increased pass rates of over 20% for its learners in the five years RATA has been supporting them. The staff of the Ark attributes this to the training of the teachers thus far, and the resources that we are providing for them to use. The students of the Ark school are great kids and we are continually impressed with how the older students are determined to achieve and break the cycle of poverty their parents have set for them.

We are committed to running a minimum 5 year programme at each school, or until RATA determines independence.

In 2008 we also started to work in Ashiaman, Accra in Ghana. There are three schools we are working alongside, with a total of 450 students..

These children are from very poor areas and their parents cannot afford government school fees so they attend alternative schools that are formed by volunteer and aid agencies. These schools are very excited about working in partnership with RATA and the opportunities it will give the staff for some quality training as educators.

In 2009 we also started to work in Northern India supporting six schools in the foothills of the Himalaya’s and in the slum areas. All six schools have teachers that have no formal educational training.

If we train the teachers how to teach numeracy, literacy, how to read to kids, and how to run a positive class, then the flow on for years to come will be immense.

Why Rata

The Rata tree is native to New Zealand with flamboyant red flowers. The Rata tree starts life as a seed that is implanted into the forks of a large tree by passing birds. It attaches itself and starts to grow as a vine down the trunk of the host tree. The vine sucks its life from the tree until it hits the ground and starts to put down its own roots. When it is strong enough it then feeds itself, not needing the host tree any more. It is our hope and our God given calling to use our talents, training as teachers, and resources to support our untrained colleagues who are teaching the children of the world. If we do this, they will give these children an education that will lead them from a life of poverty to a life of hope and contribution.. Like the Rata tree we hope that untrained teachers world wide will use us, glean from us, take strength from us, until they are sufficiently equipped to take root and teach with confidence and excellence themselves.

Ratas Journey

2006

First retreat run for the Ark teachers, 7 Ark teachers attended, with one New Zealand teacher leading the Professional Development. A request for more help followed.

2007

RATA Teacher Support was named and a full retreat to the Ark occurred. Eight New Zealand teachers traveled to South Africa at their own expense to teach 15 Ark teachers in July. The result was book corners are now part of all classrooms, PE activities and story telling are becoming a vital part of the teacher’s tools. The November 2007 Student pass rates were the best in the school history with a 10% increase. A 3 year Strategic plan was written for the school to implement. The New Zealand teachers worked hard and despite having forgone their holidays and each having to pay $4000.00 to come, all felt it professionally and personally very satisfying. The retreat cost of $8408.00 was all fund raised through hard work by RATA here in New Zealand.

2008

Cape Town Kids RATA returned to the Ark and took the Ark staff on educational visits around the city of Cape Town. We took them to Museums, Gardens, The Castle and up Table Mountain. The aim was to open the eyes of their students to learning outside of The Arks world. We arranged for the Ark students to attend these places as well with their teacher at a later date. We ran appraisals on each teacher to give positive feedback and areas to improve their teaching practice. These were positively accepted as many of The Ark teachers have never had positive comments made about their work and given to them in such a formal and meaningful way. We built a playground for the children to play on, two slides, four swings, equipment for climbing, balancing, rolling, scrambling - A real joy to them and a humbling gift from people all over the world to the Ark children.

teachers teaching GHANA: We began new work in Ghana, working alongside three schools filled with students eager to learn and with little or no resources and limited trained teachers. One school is constructed of wooden planks with gapping holes. Children sit five to a table sharing a book. The teaching is done by rote and so children’s learning and ability to think is hindered. Yet they are passionate about being educated, about learning. We have much to do in Ghana and have a very supportive team eager and waiting to work with us.

2009

We went back to both Ghana and Cape Town. In Cape Town we ran a conference with key note speakers. Dr Cheryl Doig from “Think Beyond” joined us as a keynote speaker; we were honored to have her expertise and passion for global education on board with RATA. She challenged the school on the “big picture” and on 21st Century learning. We then continued to model lessons and mentor the teaching staff in The Ark. In Ghana a team of 5 worked with the Ghanian teachers in pedagogy, thinking about how we educate learners. We had a solid look at what they do now and how we can work alongside that and enhance it. We ran some workshops on thinking skills, literacy, numeracy and behaviour management on a “teacher only day”. We used Scholastic Books by Jill Eggleton and Wilkie Way maths games alongside NZ Numeracy Project card and dice games to make learning come alive for the teachers and students.

2009 also saw us start our work in India. We took a team of four people from New Zealand and worked in the foothills of the Himalayas with teachers from six schools under the umbrella of one organization. These schools are in mountain villages where some children have to walk india 3 hours a day to attend. Three of the schools are in crowded urban areas and cater for the children of beggars and slum dwellers. The teachers were again very hungry for all we could teach them and Scholastic Books and Wilkie Way math’s was put to very good use. We also used a lot of games from the Numeracy Project. All this knowledge is new for the teachers, and it makes them very aware that rote is not teaching learners to think.