Education sans frontieres (link between British and Ghanaian schools).

The Sixth formers at Hethersett Old Hall School, near Norwich, England, have a personal interest in development issues--because their friends are involved. The girls exchange letters regularly with students at a school in a remote part of northern Ghana.

`When it's on TV or in a book, they find it boring,' says their science teacher, Lynne Symonds. `But when it comes in a letter from a friend, they really want to learn about it.' She uses their correspondence as a starting point for Science, Technology and Society classes.

She sees the link between the independent day and boarding school for girls in England and Wulugu School in northern Ghana as an invaluable part of her pupils' education. `We want to send them out with more than good exam results,' she says. `We want to help them towards good citizenship.'

The link between the two schools stems from 1993, when Symonds visited Japan with an international group of educators. `We were waiting for an appointment outside the Diet in Tokyo, and I got talking to the headmaster of Wulugu School, Karimu Nachina. He said, "I'm really fed up because one of my girls died last week. What do you do when your girls die?" '

It turned out that the girl had become pregnant--a risky business in the developing world where, according to recent UNICEF statistics, women run a one in four chance of dying or being disabled in childbirth. `Schoolgirl pregnancies are unusual in Ghana,' says Symonds. `But many schools, such as Wulugu, have no boarding houses. The students board in village homes and some end up behaving as young people will.'

The two teachers discussed the value of peer group education and, on her return, Symonds got her students to write letters to the girls at Wulugu. `We thought it might help a little--and actually it made quite a big difference,' she says.

Things took off from there. Letters came from Wulugu saying they had no books and would be grateful for any Hethersett Old Hall School was throwing away. Symonds and her pupils collected enough books to start a library, which is now one of the best in northern Ghana. They have also raised the money to help build a girls' boarding house.

A whole range of further links have spun off--between young farmers and veterinary workers, nurses, churches and between the Lord Mayor of Norwich and the District Chief Executive.

Some 30 British schools have followed Hethersett Old Hall and formed links with Ghanaian schools, and Symonds hopes to extend the scheme internationally.

The benefits for both sides are great, she says. One British school, for instance, is helping its partner to prepare a guide to Ghana's largest game reserve.

She believes that the links with Britain encourage Ghanaian parents to keep their girls at school. She sees women's education as vital to development, because women are responsible for health, nutrition and often farming. `If we help girls, we help the future generation as well.'

She has visited Wulugu several times, and in April was made a chief of the Mamprusi tribe, an honour never before given to a white person. `The title makes me a catalyst,' she says. `I can meet other chiefs and bring people together.'

The link has sparked media interest--another educational experience for Symonds' students. She is swamped with offers of books from all over the country, and is desperate for help in getting them to Norwich and then on to Ghana.

`On one radio interview I said, "My bedroom floor will collapse and my husband divorce me, if I can't get these books out to Ghana!" A company stepped in and helped. There are so many good and caring people in the world.'

With a science department to run, she has little time for fund-raising--yet has to find considerable sums for fares and transporting books. On the day I spoke to her, she had been up at 5 am writing reports and would be working late into the night to prepare for a speaking date on the link.

`This is not "oh, dear, they're starving, let's send food",' she says. `It's "we can help to restore food-growing capacity through education". They are wonderful people, who through no fault of their own are ill-equipped to cope with the demands of a very academic education system. In many schools, the students have no desks and only one exercise book each. If they had our facilities, they would learn so quickly!'