Hello to all of you from bright and sunny Tanzania. We have heard from some of you and from other CCS volunteers about the blizzards and huge snow storms that many of you are having. We wish that we could send you some of our heat!
Today (February 3) is Jean’s turn to write. I have decided to begin with an explanation of the Q.Ts. and add some more description of the Tanzanian educational system. I will certainly understand if some of you don’t want to read the entire post. It may be much too long. However, Kirk and I will keep it to read when we’re old and feeble and want to remember this experience in Tanzania.
The educational system here in Tanzania seems to have two tracks: a systematic one which includes both public and private schools and an alternative one which is designed to help those who can’t complete the systematic one for one reason or another.
First, I’ll describe the systematic system. It is much like ours. Primary school consists of Standards One through Seven. Students usually begin Standard One when they are about six years old and complete Standard Seven when they are about 13 or 14 years old. Upon completing Standard Seven, the students take a National Exam which tests whether they have learned whatever they were supposed to learn through those years.
The CCS staff member (Sarah) who described this process to me said that completion of Standard Seven and passing the National Exam is still not enough for employment in the country. Students must go on beyond this Primary level of education to the next level, the Secondary level.
The Secondary Level of education consists of Form One, Two, Three and Four. After completing Form Four, students can continue to Forms Five and Six, but that is not required for successful employment. Both the Primary and Secondary levels have good and bad public schools which are often overcrowded and expensive private schools which many people simply cannot afford for their child or children.
The alternative system is designed for those children who cannot pass the National Exam. There are many reasons why a child may not have passed that exam. They may have attended a very bad public primary school. Perhaps they couldn’t attend primary school at all. Perhaps they could attend classes some of the year, but not the entire school year. I’m sure that we could all list many additional reasons because they also occur in our own country.
If a child has not been able to pass the National Exam, they can attend classes
similar to the ones that I teach to prepare to take the Qualifying Test 1. If they should pass QT 1, it completes the requirements for both Form 1 and Form 2 of the Secondary level of education. After passing the QT 1, they can attend classes to study for the QT 2; and if they pass that test, it will satisfy the requirements for Forms 3 and 4. So, the QT tests are an alternative to the “official” Secondary educational track which can be followed only if one successfully passes the National Exam.
I was told that there is also a QT 3 which satisfies the requirements for Forms 5 and 6, but my class is focused on QT 1.
If this is not clear, please ask me questions and I’ll ask others here or try to explain what I know. As I write it, I realize that this is not much different from our own educational system. There are simply different names.
Something happened yesterday that is also important to note: punishment is harsh in this country. I am reporting what I was told because I saw little and understood even less, but I heard some of it. I saw several students from Form 1 standing in
the sun which shone on the road in front of our classroom. I was told that the class did not know the material that they were supposed to know and, therefore, every member was forced to stand in the hot sun in the roadway. Their teacher would ask individuals questions about the material and, if they answered the question correctly, they could come inside and out of the sun.
Several students were left standing in the roadway (and sun) because they couldn’t answer a question correctly. I didn’t see how many students were left. However, I heard their hands being hit by the headmistress. I heard more than a hand slap and therefore think that they were hit with a ruler, but I’m not sure. My students could see this punishment and certainly were not thinking about whatever I meant to discuss with them at that moment!
The next topic in the educational system is not new, but I had forgotten about it. Long ago, when students from this part of the world came to Hesston College, they described the large number of students in the classrooms and the way that teachers taught. The teacher would write a paragraph on the board, the students would copy it. The teacher would write another paragraph on the board and the students would copy it. That would go on all day long. At night the students would memorize what they had copied and the next day would have to repeat it word for word. That is the way most classes are taught here in Tanzania, too. Discussion and fun is at a minimum in the classroom.
My partner, Melissa, and I want to have fun while teaching and learning. So today’s discussion of Solar System involved going down the “street” to another building with a very large classroom. The room had to be unlocked and the benches and chairs moved to the walls.
Then Mama Jean stood next to a post in an effort to be “The Sun.” Each student was a different planet and had to move around the Sun in an elliptical orbit.
The room was way too small to do this with each planet’s distance from the sun correctly in proportion, but the idea was to get them to understand the orbits of the planets, the shape of an ellipse and the idea of a year. Then we also used one of the students to explain that the concept of a day was related to the rotation of each planet while it is also revolving around the sun. We are convinced that the students understood what we were trying to teach them much better than they would have understood it if they had copied a paragraph and memorized it.
One last item (though there are many that I will save for next week): the students are expected to sit on their benches from 8:15 am until noon. That is totally unfair! Frankly, I need some stretching and some exercise! So, between classes and, therefore, about every hour, we do some stretching and some yoga stretches. I wish that I could remember the poses that we used today, but they have to do with arm stretches, leg lunges, twists and bends. I brought a copy of the explanation of several yoga poses with me. Next week we’ll do more of them. We just can’t get on the ground because it is so dusty. More about this next week.
Tomorrow (Friday) Kirk and I will skip our assignment and leave at 8 am to fly to Zanzibar where we will spend the weekend in a nice, clean hotel, on the beach and in the Indian Ocean as we swim and snorkel. We are SOOOO excited! And we’ll tell you all about it when we return.
I am sorry that this was so long, but it brings love to all of you,
Mama Jean and Babu
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