I said earlier that I would write a bit about schools here, or at least village schools like the one in my village. My village, being a small village, only has an elementary school and that has only been in existence about 3 years. It has 6 classrooms, two of which are in a cement building, and the other four are made of wood posts and grass woven mats covering the walls and the ceiling. There are 3 state-paid teachers, including the director of the school, and these three do not live in our village, but live in Ngong. The other three teachers are "Benevoles" a term also used in health centers for those that "volunteer." Their salary is technically supposed to come from the village parents group, but more often then not they pay late or not at all, as they have trouble raising funds.
Not all school age children attend school. Though it is a public school, there is a school fee, and there are other fees for exam years, to pay for taking the exam that will allow you to advance to the next grade level. There are no school uniforms in my village, although in bigger cities, and high schools there are. Because of these costs many families are not able to send all or some of their children to school. Boys are preferred and so in some cases when given the choice, they will be the ones sent to school if money is running out and a family has to make a choice. But, I believe those times are changing a bit, and more families are more equal about that. The times that I have taught the oldest class at the elementary school the numbers of boys and girls has been equal. I would say (though based off of ideas rather than hard evidence) that only 15% or less of village children continue on to middle school after elementary school. Perhaps this is because of money. Perhaps this is because it is a 99% farming community, and there is little need of higher education. Or perhaps it is because the quality of education they receive is so poor that they are not able to pass the tests in order to move on. All three play a role.
The "middle school" is located in the neighboring village Sanguere Ngal. After that, is high school, and high schools are only located in bigger cities. There is one in Ngong, and in Sanguere Paul, and perhaps in Djalingo as well. If children go on to high school, depending on the distance, they may walk or ride a bike for a long time to get there. Many others end up residing in the high school town, with families, or renting out rooms with lots of other high school students.
As farming season gets under way, and the rain falls, less and less children go to school as they are helping their families with the preparing and planting fields. The same thing in the fall. School officially starts at one date, but really it starts after that, as the majority of kids will still be helping with harvests and will trickle back to school a good bit later.
Children are generally very well behaved and very happy and excited to be at school, unlike our state-side sentiments. They have the utmost respect for their teachers, due to strong discipline. However, it is generally very difficult to get them to participate in lessons, as that is not the Cameroonian model of education. Being based on memorisation there is little emphasis on creative thinking, and very little individualism. In general even through high school, students are trained not to think for themselves or be creative, but just to generate the correct answeres, whether they understand them or not. This could follow a general societal trend through much of the continent of the larger society being more important than the individual, and people who rather be part of a group rather than stand out. If I am teaching a lesson and ask a question, there is not a flurry of hands raised in excitement for the chance to answer. If I call on students they are terrified of saying something incorrect, no matter how many times I say "There are no wrong answers." or "what do you think?" "What ideas do you have?" For those used to teaching in an American setting this can be very frustrating. However I still think it is valuable and prefer to plow on in this method rather than revert to writing on the board and chanting facts.
What are some of the major challenges of the school system, and in particular my elementary school? First there is the lack of buildings...and teachers. The grass mats shade a bit from the sun, but not of course the rain. They have to be replace year after year as they decompose. Lack of materials is another thing. There are no books for the children, only notebooks the purchase and copy lessons down in. There is a lack of visual aids, no posters, no stimulating colors and pictures on the walls. 90% of teaching is oral, and rote memorisation, the teacher reads lessons or writes sentences on the board and the children copy them down in their notebooks. This is why I had wanted to make those posters for my geography/ecology class, taking continent by continent and have pictures of people, landscape and animals for each region. I was able to do two classes (Africa and North/Central America) before school ended for the year, and they were a big hit! But one of the biggest challenges, and my personal frustration is the lack of school days. It seems like there is really only school held maybe 60-75% of school days. First of all there are many many holidays. Then whenever there are teacher meetings, with the director or other teachers in another town, there is no school. (there are no teacher meetings after school, its always during school hours). And on top of that there are so many times where the teachers just don't show up. And the children come to school! For example, I had a class I was going to teach a few weeks ago, and in the morning it rained. It rained hard for about 2 hours but then it turned into a drizzle. As it turned to drizzle, the students and I made our way to the school. And waited. And waited. The teachers never came. Because it was raining, slightly. No school. And the last time I went to school as well, to teach, a beautiful day, the teachers never came. So I taught, then shuffled the kids back outside for them to wait for their teachers, and locked the door. And so many times this happens, the kids go to school and wait and wait, and then return home, their teachers never coming. It kills me, because I think of how much better off they'd be, how much more advanced, how much more equipped to pass their tests if they actually got to attend class the number of days they're supposed to! The kids are being gypped.
Imagine, with all of these challenges, the frustrations that many Peace Corps education volunteers feel during their service. There are exceptiong, but I believe that education volunteers as a whole have a lower satisfaction rate of their service, and feel less content, useful and happy during their time, than other programs in Cameroon. And I think they might have the highest ET (early termination=leaving early) rate, although I don't know the numbers.
Not all school age children attend school. Though it is a public school, there is a school fee, and there are other fees for exam years, to pay for taking the exam that will allow you to advance to the next grade level. There are no school uniforms in my village, although in bigger cities, and high schools there are. Because of these costs many families are not able to send all or some of their children to school. Boys are preferred and so in some cases when given the choice, they will be the ones sent to school if money is running out and a family has to make a choice. But, I believe those times are changing a bit, and more families are more equal about that. The times that I have taught the oldest class at the elementary school the numbers of boys and girls has been equal. I would say (though based off of ideas rather than hard evidence) that only 15% or less of village children continue on to middle school after elementary school. Perhaps this is because of money. Perhaps this is because it is a 99% farming community, and there is little need of higher education. Or perhaps it is because the quality of education they receive is so poor that they are not able to pass the tests in order to move on. All three play a role.
The "middle school" is located in the neighboring village Sanguere Ngal. After that, is high school, and high schools are only located in bigger cities. There is one in Ngong, and in Sanguere Paul, and perhaps in Djalingo as well. If children go on to high school, depending on the distance, they may walk or ride a bike for a long time to get there. Many others end up residing in the high school town, with families, or renting out rooms with lots of other high school students.
As farming season gets under way, and the rain falls, less and less children go to school as they are helping their families with the preparing and planting fields. The same thing in the fall. School officially starts at one date, but really it starts after that, as the majority of kids will still be helping with harvests and will trickle back to school a good bit later.
Children are generally very well behaved and very happy and excited to be at school, unlike our state-side sentiments. They have the utmost respect for their teachers, due to strong discipline. However, it is generally very difficult to get them to participate in lessons, as that is not the Cameroonian model of education. Being based on memorisation there is little emphasis on creative thinking, and very little individualism. In general even through high school, students are trained not to think for themselves or be creative, but just to generate the correct answeres, whether they understand them or not. This could follow a general societal trend through much of the continent of the larger society being more important than the individual, and people who rather be part of a group rather than stand out. If I am teaching a lesson and ask a question, there is not a flurry of hands raised in excitement for the chance to answer. If I call on students they are terrified of saying something incorrect, no matter how many times I say "There are no wrong answers." or "what do you think?" "What ideas do you have?" For those used to teaching in an American setting this can be very frustrating. However I still think it is valuable and prefer to plow on in this method rather than revert to writing on the board and chanting facts.
What are some of the major challenges of the school system, and in particular my elementary school? First there is the lack of buildings...and teachers. The grass mats shade a bit from the sun, but not of course the rain. They have to be replace year after year as they decompose. Lack of materials is another thing. There are no books for the children, only notebooks the purchase and copy lessons down in. There is a lack of visual aids, no posters, no stimulating colors and pictures on the walls. 90% of teaching is oral, and rote memorisation, the teacher reads lessons or writes sentences on the board and the children copy them down in their notebooks. This is why I had wanted to make those posters for my geography/ecology class, taking continent by continent and have pictures of people, landscape and animals for each region. I was able to do two classes (Africa and North/Central America) before school ended for the year, and they were a big hit! But one of the biggest challenges, and my personal frustration is the lack of school days. It seems like there is really only school held maybe 60-75% of school days. First of all there are many many holidays. Then whenever there are teacher meetings, with the director or other teachers in another town, there is no school. (there are no teacher meetings after school, its always during school hours). And on top of that there are so many times where the teachers just don't show up. And the children come to school! For example, I had a class I was going to teach a few weeks ago, and in the morning it rained. It rained hard for about 2 hours but then it turned into a drizzle. As it turned to drizzle, the students and I made our way to the school. And waited. And waited. The teachers never came. Because it was raining, slightly. No school. And the last time I went to school as well, to teach, a beautiful day, the teachers never came. So I taught, then shuffled the kids back outside for them to wait for their teachers, and locked the door. And so many times this happens, the kids go to school and wait and wait, and then return home, their teachers never coming. It kills me, because I think of how much better off they'd be, how much more advanced, how much more equipped to pass their tests if they actually got to attend class the number of days they're supposed to! The kids are being gypped.
Imagine, with all of these challenges, the frustrations that many Peace Corps education volunteers feel during their service. There are exceptiong, but I believe that education volunteers as a whole have a lower satisfaction rate of their service, and feel less content, useful and happy during their time, than other programs in Cameroon. And I think they might have the highest ET (early termination=leaving early) rate, although I don't know the numbers.
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