15Αυγούστου - Χρόνια Πολλά!
on Marika VSO-ing in Namibia (Namibia), 15/Aug/2010 19:29, 34 days ago
We are now in the middle of the examination period and sadly, I’m once again disappointed at my class’s results. I came here with such hope that they would drastically improve, but I’ve gone the other way in questioning my own teaching skills. I can blame their poor English as for many it’s their 3rd language, I can blame the fact that they are missingthe foundations to such an extent that there isn’t enough time to do this much in terms of developing their sense of number, let alone prepare them for a badly and over-worded and undifferentiated exam paper. But, it’s times like these that make me consider working at an office level in the Education sector, rather than at the ground level. But then, would I really want to spend my days in an office? I remind myself, no. It’s the nitty-gritty, messy, dealing with the people, that is most fulfilling, even if the failures sometimes seem to outweigh the successes.The biggest let down this week was my perhaps delayed realisation that teachers essentially cheat before the exams. Schools receive regional papers a couple of days before the actual exam is at and then go through these questions with the classes. Take the Maths teachers at Mavuluma. During the last exam period I was not present as VSO obliged me to attend ICT 2 in Mariental. On my return, with perhaps a hint of arrogance, I was baffled by how the other teachers performed better. I considered language, different abilities of our classes, but was pretty sure they taught to the test that had been written by the Head of Maths. This could potentially happen in many schools, but one normally has faith in the teachers. On this occasion though, knowing the level of teaching that occurs and knowing that one of the other teachers hadn’t even finished the syllabus, there’s little other justification. On the afternoon before the paper, after revising with my class, I went round the other classes to find them emptied but with the next day’s exam questions all over the chalkboard. Now knowing how much emphasis is based on ‘results’/’teacher performance’ and such like from the Regional Office, circuit inspectors, I can see why teacher’s resort to this, but, the simple issue of the dishonesty of it in my mind just undermined and threw the whole system into turmoil. In talking with one of the motivated Advisory teachers, Edith, she didn’t seem very surprised and said that it had occurred before even in the official end of year examinations where the papers are sent up in plastic wallets and all, but they are not necessarily secured between their arrival to a school and the exam date. She even said that itwould all make sense why their school observations/visits ad quality of lessons observed don’t always match up to their results. Are their results then a reflection of their ability to teach or cheat?We had a visit from Emily, the VSO Education Programme Assistant who had a formal end of placement review with Scott who is leaving next month and a 'courtesy call' for the most of us. Unusual because I should be having a mid-placement review, but I don't particularly mind missing out on these formalities and so didn't press on the matter. A lovely weekend to end the week. We ventured out to visit two Peace Corps volunteers, Emily and Andrew at their villages, roughly 70km from Katima. Kailtin, Justin, Emily and I, headed for Kabbe, and then walked most of the 10km to visit Andrew and Scott in Lusese. We got a lift back on an open bakkie and spent the evening together in Emily’s mud hut. Now she is lucky enough to have electricity (bar the hour or so it went off for), but I really admire her for being able to live in such an isolated place. Although near the school, she has to hike to Katima every weekend for food and collect water from the nearby school tap. The PeaceCorps are hardcore enough to make VSO’s seem like softies. It was a lovely evening and night where I was made aware of the different village sounds where it surprises me that it’s actually nosier than our house in the town. Mostly from the ‘shebeen’ music or drumming thought to be from a traditional healer (from the timing of it) playing in the background along with her cat getting up to mischief. We returned Sunday morning and I spent the afternoon with Katie where we had a fun time trying out Kayaking in the Zambezi River hired cheaply from the (a few km out of town) Caprivi River Lodge. We took it easy and kept to the bank as advised keeping our eyes peeled for hippos or crocs. Luckily we didn’t encounter either of these close to us other than a type of swimming snake/lizard thing. As we look over to Zambia, we notice the river level has significantly dropped as sand banksappear that Zambian children manage to reach by precariously wading (wisely at full speed!) through a bit of water and spend the afternoon playing. It’s wonderful seeing how easily and with so little the children here are kept entertained compared to ‘Western children’.