One could make a list of ways that 19-year-old Modou Lamin Bojang and his 16-year-old brother, Dembo, differ from American teenagers. For starters, the two Gambian high school students live without electricity in a compound that has never had a land-line phone, despite the fact that nearly a dozen extended family members reside there.

Despite the obvious differences in lifestyle, though, one conversation with either brother will prove that these boys are surprisingly similar to teens anywhere–thanks to cell phone technology. Like teens in America, staying current with friends, checking on favorite sports teams, and getting “real time” updates are just as important to the Bojang brothers as students living in developed countries. The only difference is that their generation is the first in The Gambia to have the technology to keep up with their interests.

For Dembo, his cell phone–known as a “mobile” in The Gambia–is now his primary link to friends and family since he switched schools from private to public last year–giving up access to a computer lab. “My new school has a couple of computers,” Dembo said, “but most of them are broken.” Thus, his connection to a larger world exists in his small pre-paid “mobile” with service from one of West Africa’s largest providers–Africell.

“I’m always using my phone,” Dembo admits, adding that he uses it mostly to text and make calls since it’s not able to access the Internet. And, like 95% of mobile phone users in 40+ African countries, Dembo buys pre-paid credit for his phone–billing service doesn’t exist in villages where the houses don’t have addresses or mail service.

For many Africans, the expense of buying an actual phone is the most costly part of getting connected. In The Gambia, a phone costs approximately $100 USD (2,500 Gambian Dalasi), about the same amount as a working parent’s entire one-month salary. But once teens like Dembo have phones, they seem to be pretty resourceful in finding cash for airtime.

“I eat a small lunch most of the time,” Dembo explained, “and I save a portion of my lunch money to buy minutes for the phone.” Jobs are hard to come by, and even if there were employment available, Dembo doubts he’d have time for work in between school and playing soccer on a local team. Despite his busy schedule, however, Dembo smiles and admits there’s always time for his phone. “It’s only when I’m sleeping that I turn it off,” he laughed.

Modou Lamin, Dembo’s older brother, also is rarely caught without his phone. For him, his phone triples as his MP3 player and his flashlight–an important tool since he lives without electricity and his homework often gets done after dark. Unlike his younger brother, however, this twelfth-grader keeps his phone on most nights. Even as he falls asleep, his headphones are plugged in and the reggae beat rocks him to sleep.

When he wakes up, one of the first things he does is place his solar charging unit on the back porch, so it will be ready to charge his phone battery by the time he gets home from school. The unit was a gift from his mother who recently linked up with a U.S.-based solar company and has plans to distribute solar chargers throughout the region.

The device has made staying connected a whole lot easier for Modou Lamin; before he relied on friends or the expensive use of a generator to charge his phone. He hopes to get more of these chargers and possibly others like the Soccket in the future–which could help him start a mobile phone charging business and give him something to do after graduating in June.

Although Modou Lamin and his brother, Dembo, each have only one phone, many of their friends have two or more phones or SIM cards now that four cell phone companies have set up business in The Gambia (a decade ago, there was only one). Since not all phones get service in every part of the country and out-of-network calls are expensive, owning more than one phone or SIM is often cheaper than calling friends on different networks. But the new competition continues to cause prices to fall and companies are offering bonuses and incentives to win customers.

One friend of the Bojang brothers, Ousainou Cham, learned more than a year ago about the advantages of those bonuses when his father gifted him with a mobile phone from the newest cell phone company in The Gambia–QCell.

“Using a phone is very cheap and affordable now–even browsing on the Internet,” Cham explained, stating that he’s happy with QCell, the only company currently offering 3G service in the country. In response, other companies began selling credit as low as 5-dalasis (about 20 cents)–so teens don’t have to save up for very long to charge their phone in big amounts.

“Every time you buy minutes you get bonus credit to browse the Internet,” explained Cham. He admitted that although he uses the phone daily to check school assignments or do Google research for homework, he spends just as much time downloading games like Army Rangers, checking scores for his favorite soccer team (Barcelona), and connecting with his 126 friends on Facebook.

Lucky for all of the boys–each cell company in The Gambia only charges for outgoing calls and texts–meaning all incoming calls and messages, even international, are always free. Depending on your African service provider, when you receive a call you might get bonus minutes just for answering, they added.

And for those African teens without phones–don’t think for a moment they’re not connected, either. Even without a phone, many African teens own SIM cards, and nearly all of them know the basics of opening up a friend’s phone and popping in their own SIM so they can make a call or stay connected while borrowing someone’s cell.

Along with the rapid growth of cell phone technology in the last decade–from 49 million in 2002 to 500 million across Africa in 2011–many African teens also enjoy greater access to the Internet. In The Gambia, a one-hour session browsing the Internet at a local cafe now costs as little as 15 Dalasis (about 50 cents) and nearly every small town has at least one of these cafes. Though the speeds are often painfully slow, and the wait time to use the computers can be long, the determination of African teens to stay “plugged in” parallels the same motivation of teens in America, proving that communication and technology is uniting youths who happen to be growing up on opposite sides of the globe.

Put yourself in a make-believe high school classroom, filled with 100 American students. Imagine sorting them, telling those who will graduate to stand up. Based on average graduation rates, you’d likely face more than 75 standing seniors and a room full of hope.

Now, put yourself in an imaginary classroom filled with 100 students from the West African country of The Gambia. After sorting them according to who passed all five subjects on the West African Senior Secondary Exam, you’d only be staring into three or four hopeful faces.

Shocking?
The really disturbing part is that those numbers aren’t imaginary.

Those results are a reality that principal Innocent Ibiam deals with every day as the Director and Proprietor of Rose-Kali International School in Abuko, Gambia. “The biggest problem in our schools here is student performance,” he stated. “The low scores minimize all of our efforts. It’s a serious problem.” And, as a native of Nigeria–he knows that Gambia is not the only West African country where such serious problems exist.

But what causes so many West African students to fail their final exams or drop out, even after more than a decade of being in school? That’s the million-dollar question, says Ibiam. In the 16 years he’s worked in education, he hasn’t seen graduation rates improve much. His concern is rising that there are too many problems piggy-backing on each other. But he’s also hopeful that by talking about each problem–rather than ignoring them, as some educators do–there’s a better chance of finding solutions for improvement.

So what are some of the biggest challenges facing schools and students in The Gambia and throughout West Africa? And what can be done about them? These ‘top four’ challenges followed by ways to get involved will introduce you to the struggles of West African education and the organizations trying to tackle them.

West African Education Challenge #1: Poverty
Nearly every country in West Africa makes the yearly list of the world’s 50 poorest countries. With earning rates as low as one dollar per day, families have a lot on their minds besides education.

“Class level and family income has a lot to do with success in school,” remarked Ibiam. He explained that in a home where parents never attended school home–a family with little money isn’t going to value education, because it won’t put food on the table right away. Poor families are more likely to keep kids at home or on the farm. And, when they do send kids to school, they’re often sent without lunch money or money for transportation, so they’re tired and hungry when they arrive. Or, they’re sent to live with relatives or family friends far from their homes. Under these conditions, he wonders how kids can concentrate and who is going to help them with their homework when the school day is done.

West African Education Challenge #2: Language Barriers
In Nigeria, there are nearly 400 native languages, making the total languages spoken throughout West Africa nearly 1,000 in all. That fact alone showcases the barriers in communication. Add in the fact that the majority of them are not written languages, and you’ve got a recipe for communication breakdown.

But even though many countries have declared English or French as the language of instruction–the problem hasn’t been solved. Splitting time between two, three, and even four native languages means students aren’t always as fluent in each one as native speakers. “The Gambia has a literacy rate of 40%,” added Ibiam. “Some students now are the first in their families to ever read or write English.” A challenge, indeed.

West African Education Challenge #3: Too many Students, Not Enough Schools
At Ming Daw Junior Secondary School in Gambia, there are not enough classrooms to accommodate the more than 1,600 middle schoolers enrolled. To cope with the lack of space, students either attend in the morning or the afternoon. But that means the teachers work extra hours–8 a.m. until 6 or 6:30 p.m.–and teach as many as 300 students daily.

But that’s not even the most extreme scenario, according to Mr. Ibiam. “In some schools, like the Serrekunda Nursery school, the student to teacher ratio is 70 to 1. Can you imagine a school with 3,000 preschoolers? That’s just managing, not teaching. Schools lose teachers every year because of it.”

The overcrowded schools also lead to a lack of other resources–water can run scarce, and other schools struggle without electricity or computers. Sometimes ten or more students share one textbook. Schools often lack coaches and aren’t able to offer after school sports or extracurriculars, either.

West African Education Challenge #4: Interruptions to Instructional Time
In America, most students go to school from roughly 8:00 a.m to 3:00 p.m. Not counting extracurricular activities, that’s approximately seven hours of instructional time each day over a course of about nine months. But at schools like Ming Daw, instruction only happens during half of a day, due to overcrowding. And interruptions of all kinds–most recently, an illness that struck 50 of its students–seem to happen too often. “Whether its flood or drought, the death of a student or teacher, or cultural or religious holidays, our instruction always seems to be getting interrupted,” said Mr. Sillah, the school’s Assistant Principal.

He also noted that attendance and turnover are real problems–being sick or needing to help out at home or on the farm can cause many students and teachers to be absent on a daily basis. And when the teacher is absent–there’s not always a sub available, so classes just get canceled. These interruptions, along with others, may explain why it takes some students until they’re 21 or older to finish twelfth grade–or quit trying.

Possible Solutions & Ways to Get Involved
In response to challenges of poverty, many community schools now operate gardens or have built kitchens right on the school grounds. Projects such as HYPERLINK “http://fondazioneslowfood.com/pagine/eng/orti/cerca.lasso?-id_pg=30″ A Thousand Gardens in Africa or non-profit organizations such as HYPERLINK “http://www.africasyfa.org/” Save Your Future Association assist African communities in creating gardens near local schools or libraries. Not only does the food help alleviate hunger, but the excess revenue can help keep school fees down and education more accessible to all–meaning more kids can attend schools that are closer to home.

Tackling the problem of “Book Famine” is a U.S.-based organization called Books for Africa. Their goal: equipping schools with the textbooks and supplies needed to enhance fluency in the language of education and promote a culture of reading. When students have the right materials and more exposure to the language of instruction both in school and at home, they’ll have a chance to become more fluent, say researchers. Students in the U.S. can donate books and money to Books for Africa, and they can choose a specific project such as 1 Million Books for Gambia if they’d like.

Projects such as title=”Fresh Start Foundation”>http://fsfgambia.org/?p=608″ The Fresh Start Foundation are helping rural schools with their lack of water resources by installing boreholes and taps so that schools have running water. They also sponsor orphaned and vulnerable children by providing scholarships.

Overall, the problems are great–but the projects tackling them are just as great–and quite often, global efforts. But perhaps Mr. Ibiam is on the right track–if we identify the problems and talk about them, that’s a first step towards finding solutions that will ensure that the right to education is achieved for all African students.

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