One month at my school

Secondary School Students and Teachers

25 Octoba 2019 Ijumaa (Friday)             I took the full two weeks before I started teaching at my assigned secondary school. But I did participated in grading form IV mock NECTA (standardized national) exams. I was "grounded" to school by mkuu (headmaster) on the first my first Friday at the school-I couldn't go to town to buy materials to install solar at my residence. So Beth, my neighbor and teacher and I had to go on Saturday. On this particular this late Friday afternoon, the academic master congratulated me (hongera is the verb he used) for continuing diligently to grade some left over form four biol exams since all the other Tanzanian teachers left the teachers’ staff room.

This is a pre-NECTA (mock) exam. When a form IV student doesn't pass the NECTA final, there is zero chance the student can go to form five (O level), A level, and later to university.

Guess what, the form IV biology exam scores so far is 3, or 15, or 40s or 50s, out of a total of 100. Only one scored 70. very disappointing. I have not started teaching, it will be Oct 7. form I+II biology, form I chemistry

I have not taught secondary school kids before, only college students in USA, meaning teenagers’ behaviors are a new experience for me, let alone in a foreign land, with different marking systems and requirements.

Devious is the word I can think of for the school kids here in Tanzania. 

They have

• stolen a blank exercise notebook from me, twice;
• tried to tell me that I borrowed a green color pen from them and not returned it when the notes in green were written in 2015 by a past volunteer;
• stolen a red pen so they can use it to revise the mark on the exam;
• cheated in exams by copying from one another and thereby copying the wrong answer. For example, more than 10 students had the wrong answer for the question “what is biology”. They wrote it is the study of the living and living things and non-living things;
• borrowed my copy of past exam questions published by the Education Ministry and never returned it;
•  constantly chatted in class, not only the girls, some boys too; even walking across the classroom to the other side of the room while I was talking in front of the class.

The above are common practices, teachers are well aware of them all.

New to us American volunteer teachers is that sometimes the exam questions are written in poor English. We get a laugh, but feel sorry for the kids. For example, in an English language exercise, the students are asked to put a question mark to each statement, such as “The dog like meat.” The students asked me to help them. I recognize the question is to convert the statement into a question. I used to see it in my tutoring for English Language Learning.

Another common practice is on some teachers’ part is if there is a problem with the exam question, and that question is worth 20 marks, the teachers just take the question off the table, and every student loses 20 marks! This did not happen in my school, but my cohorts reported happening at their schools.

A third practice among teachers in the Academic Office is to ignore a revised mark if the students contest the exam score. I told the academic master that at least revise the score for several students whose original grade was F and now their grade became D. That makes a difference to the students’ records. I let it go when the grade did not change upon re-scoring.

Multiple Reasons For Why People Do The Things They Do.

Some of them may be:

•  Primary school is taught in Kiswahili, except for English language. So the kids had 7 years of one language and then in one semester they have to face with English being used for all subjects except for Kiswahili.
• Some teachers are not as fluent in English as others.
• The Education Ministry mandates all schools to report test scores, and academic offices want to get the job done and move on to the next task.
• Some kids have poor grades in multiple subjects. Some kids do very well.
• Kids, especially in boarding schools, follow senior students as their role models, and sometimes the role models are not good one.
• The school system is harsh, once a student does not pass the Form 4 NECTA, the student is out of school. The student can re-enroll in private schools are private candidate to retake the NECTA in the following year, and that means paying tuition, 1.2 million TSH/year, and that is cheap in the nation.
• Textbooks are expensive, so students take notes. Some teachers do not even have textbooks.
• The government only recently provided free education for all secondary schools, but parents have to pay fees, and other incidentals.
• Some families need the children to help work on their farms. One estimate provided by my second headmaster is 30% of rural eligible kids are not in school.
• Tanzanian culture is to share, so the concept of property is different from western viewpoint. History of socialistic culture is still very strong in Tanzania, and tribal cultures are practised. For example, if you give them a flashlight if the electricity went off, don’t expect them to return your flashlight.
• Cheating is rampant, even in India. A recent news article (Oct 22 2019, cnn.com) on Indian university students voluntarily wear a cardboard box over their heads so as to test cheating prevention. That news went viral in India.
• Kids like everywhere want to push boundaries.

Experiences for each Peace Corps volunteer may be different, depending on each individual situations and conditions. This blog contains my opinions and viewpoints, it does not reflect the Peace Corps organization’s.

teachers' staff room-the front left side is
my "office desk" that I share with another teacher

the cement floor has pock marks, and trash
(no trash can in classrooms.
This room does not even have a door

Indiana university students voluntarily wear boxes on their heads to prevent cheating. Oct 2019 cnn news

to prevent students from cheating,
one volunteer in another school
had students sit in opposite direction
so each other so they cannot peak at answers.
This will not work in a class of many students

The windows do not have glass:
this is my intern school, we, trainees then,
were having our lunch

I am now officially a volunteer

Swore in—I am now officially a Peace Corps volunteer

18 Septemba 2019 Jumatato (Wednesday)    A big day. The deputy minister from the Department of Education came from Dodoma to our training center in the Tanga Region. The auditorium was decorated beautifully with the colors of the American and Tanzanian flags. We practiced singing the national anthems of both countries, and a song routine for performance. I played the bongo drum, no singing and dancing for me.

One part of the ceremony was cutting a cake and feeding the VIPs. The youngest and the oldest trainees were chosen to do this honor. The ritual is to first feed the cake to the cutters, and to cutters’ host parents, and then the VIPs. All very symbolic. My cohorts told me that when baba William came up front and hugged me, it was moving.

The 5 families hosting us 5 of the Mashindei unit all wore the same patterned clothes, the black background with yellow flowers. The day before, while the trainees were rehearing the swearing in events, the assistant director of Peace Corps Tanzania brought me a tangawizi soda (ginger beer), my favorite. Coca Cola did right with that product.

After lunch, the trainees presented the host families with the picture we took of the family. What I did not expect was another round of gifts from the host families to us trainees. I got a flower lei, and a wooden heart-shape plaque carved with my name, and the date of my becoming a volunteer, and the word Hongera (congratulation). Dada (sister) Lucy baked another cake for me. We shared it among our Mashindei families. 

The stage of auditorium where the swear in event
was held was decorated with American
and Tanzanian flag colors

The youngest, Sydney B, and I were selected
to cut the cake to ceremonially serve VIPs

The trainees were expected to perform. We
50 trainees did song and dance numbers,
with music from popular songs,
with our own composed lyrics.
I was in the percussion section,
and got the play the bongo on the right.
I ain't doing the dancing and learning 5 songs
just to perform in 4 short rehearsal days.

Host family baba and dada (sister)
showering me with parting gifts

The Mashindei unit 5 for our farewell picture:
left to right-Sydney E, language teacher Hamisi, Alice, Diego,
Mollie, Anika. We are scattered to four corners
of Tanzania from this day forth for 2 years of service

Another baked cake on swear
in day, from dada

Kwa Heri Host Family

15 Septemba 2019 Jumapili (Sunday)               Last evening was the last night I was staying in the mountain with the host family. For dinner, my sister Lucy baked me a caki (cake), and had soda at the dining table. The soda bottles looked like candles to me, which made dinner very special. Mama Rose gave me a beautiful kanga as a parting gift. Baba William already gave me a lovely black skirt with yellow flowers. He had a fundi (tailor) came to the nyumba (house) to take measurements for the whole family, shirts for the men, skirts for the women. Then the parents also packed me some ginger and cinnamon powder for spiced tea, and some ginger roots. I was so touched.

Normally dinner is very simple, cucumbers are eaten as fruits, same as banana, oranges, and mangoes. Lately, the mango season is over, so sad. We trainees all love mangoes.

This morning, the Peace Corps car picked us up, and we all said goodbye (kwa heri) to our host families. We will stay at gesti (guest houses) for 4 days and then be dispersed to our teaching sites.

First week of September 2019        I eat lots of fruits, drink plenty of spiced tea. I also experienced drinking fresh cow’s milk, shucking corn, which landed a knife wound into my left hand, at the base of the thumb. A few weeks back, I cut myself shredding coconut on a special contraption. City folks (i.e., moi) don’t know how to do anything - too soft…

It’s hard work after spending 7-8 hours at the training center, because the trainees have to participate in household activities, meaning doing chores. This cuts into my language study time. By the time the family eats dinner, it is nine-ish or later in the evening. I do some work, but usually fall asleep.

Lakini (but), I have become the queen of cooking mchicha, African spinach, in the host family!

Mchicha (spinach) plot on
host family's farm

African spinach with tomato, onions-
I cooked this, with the ladle as stirrer,
cooking pot, and serving pot,
with only salt for seasoning!

Passion fruit vine climbing along a banana tree

For recreation, Peace Corps had intercultural event #2. I read some short poems, and poem of a string of haiku, of which the last stanza was written in Kiswahili. Mama Rehema Kuptama, the Peace Corps premier Kiswahili language program trainer, clapped her hands. That was such a compliment.

Incidentally, the haiku I wrote landed me the first prize for the previous week’s competition event, The prize was a refrigerated Snickers bar. Let me tell you that a Snickers bar never tasted so good before. It was the first one after lading in Tanzania, nice and cold.