The joys of african time!
on Melissa Hipkins (Rwanda), 23/Mar/2011 08:13, 34 days ago
African time is often practised here, a meeting that is scheduled to start at 9.0am could well commence at 10.0am if you are lucky. The trick is to anticipate and adjust the agenda accordingly. This week has seen an interesting and hugely varied array of timekeeping. Meeting regularly the Head Teachers in each Sector (a subdivision of the District, with around 6-8 Heads in each of the ten sectors) they are well accustomed to arrive at the predetermined time for training, the incentive of a free fanta and brochettes at the end of the session is a great lure and might have something to do with it! The week started with an hour long motor cycle ride through verdant, hilly countryside. Banana, coffee and cassava are all growing at a pace in the fields; the rainy season seems to have been with us since the start of the year with the resulting evidence as far as the eye can see. Goats being hauled to the weekly market are the main obstacles on the uneven dirt road. Occasionally, a khaki clad child will come hurtling from the undergrowth onto the road oblivious of the dangers of the moto speeding passed. A quick toot on the horn and the urchin scuttles off into the arms of a bemused parent.The training this term covers data analysis, centred on the recent National Examination results for P6 (roughly 12/13 year olds). With the genocide in 1994 still having a profound impact on the attendance of children at primary school, a whole generation is on catch up so the age range for P6 varies from 10-18 years old, making for some marked social issues. Interestingly, the results this year show a gender achievement difference in Social Studies and Geography (girls under scoring by a significant amount), whilst there is parity in languages and maths. Much of the training has centred on trying to identify different strategies to boost girls’ attendance and motivation, by rewarding improvement; a novel idea here where the tendency has been historically to condemn poor performance; blaming and firing Heads for low achievement. The pass rate overall (students eligible to move from primary to lower secondary school) has risen by 10%, ensuring that nearly 90% of pupils make the move and stay in education. A notably achievement in a District where the illiteracy rate amongst adults in the countryside is just under 50%.All the Head Teachers bar one had arrived by the allotted hour. Lively discussions ensued in English, which is a huge credit to the desire of the Heads to understand in depth the language of the classroom. Also this emphasises the inability of me to converse in either French or Kinyarwanda. The absent Head had unexpected visitors (he is hoping that a NGO will invest in the infrastructure of his crumbling school), but he still found time to phone to offer his apologies. The group decided to have a Sector based initiative to promote awareness amongst parents, encourage girls’ performance by offering small rewards and certificates for improvement in attendance and achievement. Once the strategy had been agreed, it was off to the nearby town, passed the heaving market, to the local hostelry for the infamous fanta (highly sugared, brightly coloured fizzy drinks) and sizzling chilli-spiced goat brochettes. The hour long wait was worth it, the food when it came was delicious. Though the freshly killed meat does tend to stick in your teeth for many hours after the meal!This is the pattern for the three other sector-based Head Teacher training sessions this week. Though the food is not replicated, the generosity, warmth, friendliness, receptiveness and depth of interest are across all groups of Heads. A very humbling experience.Once a year VSO hosts a meeting with all the local stakeholders to verify the work of the Nyanza volunteers. Daunting you might think, but no, we are more than happy for Heads and teachers to do the talking, whilst we just stay quietly in the background. Unusual yes, but we can stay mute..occasionally! The problems started when VSO mindful of Rwandan timekeeping issued invitations for 8.30 assuming a 9.30am start. But oh no...our colleagues were punctual to a man and were left kicking their heels for an hour..not wasted time as Melanie and I were quite content to chat to them and plan for the future. Once the formalities were over, and we were joined by a group of 10/11 year old pupils and some parents, the fun began! I must stress at this stage that the local school from where the students come is not one where we have done any specific training. The attendees were divided into five groups (two HT, one each teachers, pupils/parents and disability). The first four groups were asked to illustrate, through drawings on flipchart paper, their current views on school life. The results were very revealing ...students, always straight to the truth, portrayed the classroom without a teacher who was outside on a mobile phone on personal business; they also interestingly perceived widespread gender bias within the school environs. But on the positive side, there was an acknowledgement of the importance of learning and potential wealth! The other groups gratifyingly took a totally more enlightened approach. The huge changes that are being implemented in education currently were reflected through drawings of new buildings, child centred learning, improved management skills and gender equality, although the issue of teacher motivation (poor pay) was still a sore point. The depth of training that we have both carried out over the past year was clear to see and much appreciated, but there was still scope for lots more.And so to lunch...the melange was set up on a long table. It is Rwandan culture for the children to go first....they each in turn reproduced multi-coloured food pyramids on their plates..chips, rice, meat, salads, beans, greens, banana, pineapple, sauce were all piled on with gay abandon. The skill was to heap more onto the plate than the previous person. Even more amazing were the resulting finished clean plates. I feel that they had really enjoyed their time out of school and will remember it fondly for weeks to come. Needless to say the food was equally well received by teachers and Heads alike..many are used to one meal a day of beans and rice, so this wide variety of local food was reward for their hard morning’s work.The afternoon’s discussions centred on the future of the partnership and the direction which this relationship should take. There was a general consensus that there was a need for more volunteers and would we like to stay on....humbling to be asked, but the decision will have to wait for another day.After the last of the week’s training sessions, I took my moto across one of the many deep Nyanza valleys, over to a very rural but progressive secondary school. EAV Mayaga is Muyira Sector’s only secondary school (discounting Groupe Scolaires). The students come from the surrounding area and are not the highest P6 performers. However, the ordinary level (lower secondary national exams) results were outstanding. This relatively small (350) boarding rural community had achieved the joint highest level of Division I passes in 2010 O Level (tied with Christi Roi, a selective urban school). Within the District it achieved top marks for Kinyarwanda, and was placed in the top five for most of the other seven subjects. This noteworthy performance was marked by celebration and speeches. As the ‘statistician’ I was asked not only to attend but to give a resume of the data. A humbling experience to be included in these festivities with the local and District dignitaries. But gosh the Rwandans can speak...what should have started at 11.0am, commenced at 2.00pm (on the District Education Officer’s arrival) with speeches and presentation to the whole school, then hot food (which had been hanging around for anhour or so), then more speeches...we left at 5.30pm..they certainly had their money’s worth! But the effort was well worth it, just looking (soberly) at the celebrations and the beer consumption, a great time was had by all!