Thursday, February 07, 2013

City Campus

Yesterday I spent most of the day at City Campus in Accra. Formerly known as the Workers' College, it was modeled after Birkbeck in London, but has far fewer resources. Something that is quite evident from the condition of the physical infrastructure, particularly the Old Block. At any rate I had a 200 level class followed by a long break during which I graded 14 exams and caught the first half of the Mali-Nigeria football match. I then had a 400 level class. There were three new students who were not in the antecedent class last semester. But, most of the 14 students from the last semester were also missing. I found out that one of them had been killed in a traffic accident during the break. I suppose that given the number of students I teach and the very high rate of motor related fatalities in Ghana that the event was not statistically that improbable. However, it still shocked me and it is always sad when young people die.

1 comment:

Leo Tolstoy said...

A student I had been very close to throughout her years at Occidental was killed in a car accident just four months after she graduated. Another, who never took classes from me but who I knew and liked, committed suicide about a year after she graduated. Both were pretty shocking, but I've never had a current student die.