So we're now partially into Week 3 of Project Tanzania and have just finished Day 2 of our Warwick Invasion.
Turnout isn't too bad - about 35% at the peak time - however, punctuality is, shall we say, lacking. For the first half hour or so, we were struggling to hit double figures!
Last weekend, we went for a "light stroll" (A light stroll? My arse it was! I'd say it was closer to a moderate hike, especially with the heat!) up a couple of mountains. It would have been enjoyable if I wasn't ill with TT (Tanzanian Tummy) and felt so sick I hadn't eaten for 48 hours... Anyway, I'm better now so that's good!
Tomorrow is Farmer's Day (or something like that). Supposedly we're going to a festival-thingy that suspiciously sounds like we're going to spend the whole day looking a large marrows and deciding which is biggest. Anyway, that's tomorrow, so I guess we'll see...
Tuesday 7 August 2012
Tuesday 31 July 2012
More Mafiga Facts, Some IGGY Ideas and a Safari Report
I realised that although I gave a large description of Mafiga Secondary yesterday, I forgot to mention that the school has over 1000 pupils, meaning each class (on average) has around 50 or more pupils with the higher grades being below that number and the lower grades being above. That said, I have been in a variety of classes and have seen no more than about 40 or so in there, suggesting a large number of pupils are enrolled but either cannot or do not come to school. Hopefully, we can change that - in the week or so I've gained a few more pupils in my main class (III-SC) so let's hope that trend continues!
In other news, I might have found one or two pupils suitable to be recommended for the IGGY (International Gateway for Gifted Youth) scheme that Warwick helps run (basically, it gives talented pupils access to resources and assistance that will aid them in obtaining a place at a good university in their own country). From what I can tell they seem good at Physics too and the person on the project and I have decided to keep our eyes on them and submit supporting statements (which will really help them in getting a place on the scheme) if they continue to excel!
In other news, we went on a Safari yesterday and saw a good range of animals, not as many as South Africa, but some of them came a lot closer to us so I've got a few excellent photos (which I'll upload when we get back to the UK).
We have also been told that the Vice-Chancellor (basically the head of the University in all but name) might be coming to visit at some point. The only problem is that the suggested dates clash with the weekend when we were planning on going to Zanzibar, so we are holding off booking anything for now.
I'd better be off now, I'm sitting outside in the sunshine and my laptop feels as though it is about to overheat!
In other news, I might have found one or two pupils suitable to be recommended for the IGGY (International Gateway for Gifted Youth) scheme that Warwick helps run (basically, it gives talented pupils access to resources and assistance that will aid them in obtaining a place at a good university in their own country). From what I can tell they seem good at Physics too and the person on the project and I have decided to keep our eyes on them and submit supporting statements (which will really help them in getting a place on the scheme) if they continue to excel!
In other news, we went on a Safari yesterday and saw a good range of animals, not as many as South Africa, but some of them came a lot closer to us so I've got a few excellent photos (which I'll upload when we get back to the UK).
We have also been told that the Vice-Chancellor (basically the head of the University in all but name) might be coming to visit at some point. The only problem is that the suggested dates clash with the weekend when we were planning on going to Zanzibar, so we are holding off booking anything for now.
I'd better be off now, I'm sitting outside in the sunshine and my laptop feels as though it is about to overheat!
Monday 30 July 2012
An Apology, an Explaination and a Promise
So, I've been in Tanzania for just over a week and this is my first blog post - sorry!
The internet here is somewhat dodgy as the entire town of Morogoro (which is where we are) has its internet beamed from Dar es Salaam to an exceptionally rusty satellite dish about 50m away from me!
Nothing exceptionally exciting has happened in Mafiga Secondary (the school I'm teaching in) as I am currently only teaching for 80 minutes a week (and am helping out in a few other classes) due to there being a large number of trainee teachers from local universities completing their teacher training in the schools at the moment.
I sounds as though from the end of this week onwards though, I will be getting considerably more hours as pretty much all the teachers are involved in carrying out the upcoming census and we are being given free reign to teach whoever and whatever we want.
On the whole, the students here seem exceptionally bright and are much more eager to learn than those in South Africa that I taught last year - they refuse to use calculators here and can even beat me at some mental mathematics!
The education system in Tanzania is split into multiple levels and lasts much longer than in the UK:
2 years of pre-Primary education - Ages 5 to 7 (Optional)
7 years of Primary education - Ages 7 to 14
4 years of Secondary education - Ages 14 to 18 - Leads to O-Level (This is what we teach!)
2 years of Post-Secondary education - Ages 18 to 20 - Leads to A-Level (Optional)
3 years of Tertiary education - Ages 20 to 23 - Leads to Bachelors Degree (Optional)
The 4 years of Secondary education are spilt into Forms I to IV with an National Assessment after Form II that they need to pass to continue and the O-Level examinations after Form IV.
In Form I and II the Forms are split into mixed ability groups, whilst in Forms III and IV they are split into Science (SC), Commerce (C) and Arts (A) specialities. All classes from secondary level upward (with the exceptional of their home language KiSwahili) are taught in English, although from my observations this one of the main reasons why results in the examinations are so poor - the others are that the papers are dreadfully written and there are allegations of corruption!
The class I'm currently sharing with a student teacher is Form III-SC, so they are fairly used to English and are some of the best in their Form for Mathematics.
The school day starts around 0730 and is split into nine 40 minute periods (most of which are doubles) with a half hour lunch break between periods four and five. On Fridays, the school finishes at lunch with the afternoon dedicated to sport (football or netball). Unfortunately, I am terrible at both so rather than embarrass myself, I find a nice shady tree to stand under and cheer the teams on! The timetable is not really overly strict though as, like many things in Tanzania, time does not seem to be a priority.
Unfortunately, corporal punishment seems a lot more common here - I see at least two or three pupils being beaten per day (usually a few hard whacks with a stick). The only upside with it seems to be that it is fairly organised - the government has stated that only certain teachers are allowed to carry out the punishment and there is a limit to how many times they can whack the pupils - and the school seems to stick to these rules quite well.
There have been two notable incidents of beatings. The first was where 6 boys and 6 girls from Form I skipped the weekly "Religion Period" (about 2 hours) to smoke marijuana in a local ghetto before paying each other for sex. They were caught by a They were hit 8 times (which I think is the limit) by the Headmistress (who was introduced to us as Auntie Betha) in front of their parents and the rest of the school. The other was where one of the above pupils also skipped an entire day of school (thereby missing the original punishment) so his father was called in and the student was beaten in front of the entire school by his father. The father however, made the school's level of punishment look like a gentle slap on the wrist - he was beating his son for so long and with so much force that the Headmistress had to remove the stick so as to stop him. The was not effective though as the father acquired another stick and continued to beat the child for another 30 minutes in a school outbuilding.
During a few of the beatings we have also been asked if we would like a stick for our class as, where we are not permanent teachers, we do not have to follow the government guidelines. Needless to say, we all politely refused!
As I said earlier, we are taking over the school next week so the stories should get a lot more exciting!
I think I'll stop this post for now - I've just looked up and I seem to have written quite a lot. I'll try and post another in the next few days with an update of what happens in the school and the Safari we went on last Saturday.
Bye for now!
The internet here is somewhat dodgy as the entire town of Morogoro (which is where we are) has its internet beamed from Dar es Salaam to an exceptionally rusty satellite dish about 50m away from me!
Nothing exceptionally exciting has happened in Mafiga Secondary (the school I'm teaching in) as I am currently only teaching for 80 minutes a week (and am helping out in a few other classes) due to there being a large number of trainee teachers from local universities completing their teacher training in the schools at the moment.
I sounds as though from the end of this week onwards though, I will be getting considerably more hours as pretty much all the teachers are involved in carrying out the upcoming census and we are being given free reign to teach whoever and whatever we want.
On the whole, the students here seem exceptionally bright and are much more eager to learn than those in South Africa that I taught last year - they refuse to use calculators here and can even beat me at some mental mathematics!
The education system in Tanzania is split into multiple levels and lasts much longer than in the UK:
2 years of pre-Primary education - Ages 5 to 7 (Optional)
7 years of Primary education - Ages 7 to 14
4 years of Secondary education - Ages 14 to 18 - Leads to O-Level (This is what we teach!)
2 years of Post-Secondary education - Ages 18 to 20 - Leads to A-Level (Optional)
3 years of Tertiary education - Ages 20 to 23 - Leads to Bachelors Degree (Optional)
The 4 years of Secondary education are spilt into Forms I to IV with an National Assessment after Form II that they need to pass to continue and the O-Level examinations after Form IV.
In Form I and II the Forms are split into mixed ability groups, whilst in Forms III and IV they are split into Science (SC), Commerce (C) and Arts (A) specialities. All classes from secondary level upward (with the exceptional of their home language KiSwahili) are taught in English, although from my observations this one of the main reasons why results in the examinations are so poor - the others are that the papers are dreadfully written and there are allegations of corruption!
The class I'm currently sharing with a student teacher is Form III-SC, so they are fairly used to English and are some of the best in their Form for Mathematics.
The school day starts around 0730 and is split into nine 40 minute periods (most of which are doubles) with a half hour lunch break between periods four and five. On Fridays, the school finishes at lunch with the afternoon dedicated to sport (football or netball). Unfortunately, I am terrible at both so rather than embarrass myself, I find a nice shady tree to stand under and cheer the teams on! The timetable is not really overly strict though as, like many things in Tanzania, time does not seem to be a priority.
Unfortunately, corporal punishment seems a lot more common here - I see at least two or three pupils being beaten per day (usually a few hard whacks with a stick). The only upside with it seems to be that it is fairly organised - the government has stated that only certain teachers are allowed to carry out the punishment and there is a limit to how many times they can whack the pupils - and the school seems to stick to these rules quite well.
There have been two notable incidents of beatings. The first was where 6 boys and 6 girls from Form I skipped the weekly "Religion Period" (about 2 hours) to smoke marijuana in a local ghetto before paying each other for sex. They were caught by a They were hit 8 times (which I think is the limit) by the Headmistress (who was introduced to us as Auntie Betha) in front of their parents and the rest of the school. The other was where one of the above pupils also skipped an entire day of school (thereby missing the original punishment) so his father was called in and the student was beaten in front of the entire school by his father. The father however, made the school's level of punishment look like a gentle slap on the wrist - he was beating his son for so long and with so much force that the Headmistress had to remove the stick so as to stop him. The was not effective though as the father acquired another stick and continued to beat the child for another 30 minutes in a school outbuilding.
During a few of the beatings we have also been asked if we would like a stick for our class as, where we are not permanent teachers, we do not have to follow the government guidelines. Needless to say, we all politely refused!
As I said earlier, we are taking over the school next week so the stories should get a lot more exciting!
I think I'll stop this post for now - I've just looked up and I seem to have written quite a lot. I'll try and post another in the next few days with an update of what happens in the school and the Safari we went on last Saturday.
Bye for now!
Monday 11 June 2012
Introduction
Hey!
As some of you might know, I'm going to be returning to Africa to spend 6 weeks (or so) of my summer teaching in Morogoro in Tanzania as part of the Warwick in Africa scheme.
Just to let you guys know, I probably won't be making many posts to this blog until I get out there, but I thought I'd set it up early and be ready!
If you want further information about Warwick in Africa, clickity-click on the links below:
Warwick in Africa
If you want to follow my progress from last year (South Africa) please click here
That's all for now!
Stephen
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