Dr Mary Ashun, CEO of Ghana International School, on why international schools are failing to prepare children for an African century
“By 2050, one in four people globally will be African. Yet walk into most international schools, even those on this continent, and ask what percentage of the curriculum comes from Africa. The answer is embarrassingly small.”
Dr. Mary Asabea Ashun has spent over 12 years at the helm of Ghana International School (GIS), one of West Africa's top international schools. A scientist turned educator, her academic resumé speaks for itself – she holds degrees from the University of East London, Toronto and SUNY Buffalo, and is a Klingenstein Fellow from Columbia's Teachers College. Before returning to Ghana, she was principal of Philopatere Christian College in Toronto and a professor at Redeemer University College, where she received a whopping $200k grant for literacy development work in Africa. If all of that weren't enough, she's also an author of children's books and YA fiction across genres from short stories to science fiction.
In this episode, Mary shares her philosophy of "talent architecture" – building pipelines to grow teachers and leaders from within rather than relying solely on expensive expat hires. She explains the Junior Teacher Programme that takes Ghanaian education graduates and trains them over three to four years until they're competing with the best in the world, and the Visiting International Educator scheme that brings global teachers to Ghana. Mary tells the remarkable story of a teacher who swims through crocodile-infested waters every day to reach his classroom and what that says about dedication versus our "first world problems". She delivers a powerful message to international education: with Africa set to make up 40% of the world's under-18 population by 2100, a curriculum where just 6% of set texts are by African authors is not just pedagogically wrong, it's economically shortsighted. A brilliant episode and not one to be missed!