As promised, here is some info about my new school. I am working in another primary school (like before) but this one is only Grade R (kindergarten) through Grade 6. Ones the learners reach Grade 7 they move to the high school, Segopotso High School, which is right next door. There are 307 students here at the Primary School, which is much bigger than in Mecwetsaneng (where we only had 90).
The differences between this school and my old schools are vast. It actually continues to shock me everyday to see a school function so well and kids who are actually LEARNING (gasp… what a concept). The biggest difference that was noticeable right from the start is the fact that the school is not understaffed, and there is a designated teacher for each grade. This is due to the size of the school, since the Department of Education administers teachers to schools based on the number of kids attending. Which is fine in theory I suppose, until you get schools like my old ones that were so small they were only allocated 3 teachers for 8 grades…. hence why the school was such a disaster. I had a hard time finding my place in that mess. I decided at the beginning of the school year that their biggest problem was the amount of teachers, which is why I took over some classes and taught English and Life Orientation. While this is something I enjoyed immensely, I don’t believe it helped my school one bit. My principal and teachers used the fact that I was taking over their classes as a sort of crutch, and now they are going to have to re-adjust to having those classes back. I knew that teaching wasn’t very sustainable going into it (which is likely the case in PC worldwide), but I thought it was worth it to give some kids some sort of education that they weren’t receiving from their school. I also attempted to use my class as a sort of model for the teachers… how to follow lesson plans, how to not hit your kids when they disrupt the class, etc. A nice idea at first, but it was like pulling teeth just to get them to go into their OWN classes let alone into mine to see how things were going… so I don’t think that really did much. I discovered all of this early on in the school year, but decided that maybe Peace Corps can be a bit of a narcissistic experience and if teaching is what I get the most personal fulfillment from, then so be it! I did as much team-teaching with the other educators in their classes as I had time for, so hopefully that helped a little. I’m not convinced it really did anything though, besides enable them to use me to make their teaching load a bit lighter.
Anyways, enough ranting about that. So this school has a teacher for each grade, along with 3 community volunteers who help with teaching and administrative stuff, and a school clerk. So while I can see that being understaffed (in a really big way) was one of the factors affecting the school’s ability to function as a school and to educate the kids, I think the teachers and principal there had just given up because it was too much work. Had my old school had an effective and hard-working principal, I do believe the teachers would have at least tried to do their job a little better. I think my principal could see how bad the school was failing, but didn’t have the energy or desire to really change it.
Ruth (my new principal) is about as different as you could get from my old principal. She is extremely dedicated, hard-working, and actually holds her teachers accountable for the work they are doing. Because of this, the school actually works! What a concept! Just this week I have been helping them do IQMS observations, which is basically the system put in place for both the teachers to monitor and “grade” each others lessons as well as for the Department to come and monitor schools. Of course my old school was supposed to be doing this, but never cared about their own classes enough to monitor and give feedback on others.
It has been amazing observing all of the teachers in their classrooms. They do just about everything I was trying so hard to implement at my old school: planning lessons and following the lesson plan, continual assessment of the learners throughout the lessons, heaving kids come up to the board to do example questions instead of just copying from the board, asking questions to help improve their critical thinking skills… even simple things like displaying the learner’s work on the walls are done here already. They are strict with the learners but do not use any corporal punishment, and if you walk by the classes the kids are actually quiet and disciplined. They teach in English but explain in Setswana when comprehension is really needed, so that the kids are not resorting to route memorization of English phrases without understanding a word of what they are saying or why they are learning it (which is what you see in many classrooms here).
One of the biggest differences I see here is that the teachers actually seem to like their job and want to improve in any way they can to do their job better. They seem to be passionate with the kids and actually teach when they are supposed to. While of course this school is better off than my old one and probably needs less “help”, it has totally changed my opinion on where Peace Corps Volunteers should be placed. Schools like my old ones that are barely at a level of basic functionality can not really use much help from a PCV. Of course we can do little things here and there to make things run more smoothly, but we are in no position to entirely change how a school is run. The only situation where I can see this possibly working is if there is a principal who is willing to completely give in to change the entire system of their school, and who receives a PCV who has had significant school management experience (which is very rarely the case, on both sides of this). Principals here can be very stubborn and are often not willing to change how their school runs even in small areas here and there. And why should they be? This was the system they grew up in, and the system in which they have been working for years. So my thought on this is that your standard PCV (young, maybe some but not a ton of education experience) would be much better placed in schools like this that are already functioning quite well with motivated teachers who actually want you there and actually want to see improvements made in their school. This way we are able to actually help with the things we want to and are able to based on our qualifications and what the school really needs, as opposed to trying to fight the system everyday just to get the school in a place where it is actually running. Obviously this is easier said than done, as is it hard to weed out the schools who have no interest in really improving and changing and who want a PCV merely as a status symbol. So, while it was really difficult leaving my village, it helps knowing that I can actually be put to much better use here. I am so sad for my kids and the dismal future their education holds for them, but I am hopeful that some of them will make it out and be successful. This is something I was never going to be able to change single-handedly anyways, whether or not I stayed there for the full 2 years – or even longer, for that matter.
That said, I am really, truly happy as a clam here. I love coming to school everyday and I am excited about the prospects for projects in 2011. I have an awesome host family and I’ve met really great people in the village with whom I get along really well. While September I spent wondering what the hell I was doing in this country and how I could make my year go by better, I am now actually excited for year 2. OK, I hope that’s enough happy sunshine rainbow blog posting for everyone :)
