Tumu, #1

Letting the chips fall where they may can lead to better than expected outcomes. Tumu, in the very north of Ghana, is one of those outcomes. MathRemotely had been a dormant nonprofit through covid, but I was finally in need of a place to give it a go, a trial run, to see if the idea of tutoring American youth from Ghana was realistic. A Ghanaian friend who transferred to Tumu invited me to come for a visit. I decided this winter would be ideal. I explored the town on Google Maps, in the very north on the border with Burkina Faso, and saw that the Tumu College of Education, TUCE, is located there, and thought for sure I would find some students willing to put the idea to a practical test. So why not Tumu?

I visited TUCE in late January. Osman Shani, the principal at TUCE, and other campus leaders welcomed the idea of MathRemotely straight off, and several minutes after arriving on campus I found myself on stage in front of a room full of students who had gathered for another purpose, explaining that I was looking for a few volunteers to give the idea a test run. I had 40 fourth-year students sign on. I scheduled an interview session on campus where small student groups solved a problem on whiteboards. I listened in, roamed and observed and chose four students to give MathRemotely a test run. The Our Team page on this website has small biographical blurbs from each of the four TUCE students who are MathRemotely - Shariff, Faith, Shariffa and Razak. All are in their last year at TUCE before beginning careers as elementary school teachers. Take a look!

Phil Cote, Founder

MathRemotely provides affordable math tutoring and homework help by college students in Ghana.