School

Most of the classrooms have twelve wooden desks, simple frames with a bench connected to what appears to be an elevated bench, a single board upon which the students place their books.
Each desk is shared by three or four children who come to know one another well—sharing a book, a writing utensil, sharpening one another’s pencils with a razor blade, leaning against one another occasionally or taking turns wearing a sweater when the cold rains come.

When the rain begins to beat down on the roof’s tin sheets, students politely request to leave the classroom and upon receiving permission dart out the doorway, racing across the school compound to the fence where they’ve hung their clean clothes to dry or to the place where they laid their mattresses and sheets to air out. These rainy moments full of energy remind me of the quote, “Don’t wait for the storm to pass. Learn to dance in the rain.” These children do that everyday.

The classroom desks and walls bear marks and scratches of letters and numbers as students work out their thoughts on them, to avoid wasting their precious paper. A large rectangular patch on one or two walls in each classroom is painted black, serving as a blackboard, illuminated by the natural light flowing through the open windows. Looking out them one can see the vivid greens of banana trees, avocado trees, pumpkins and grass, as well as some huts, blue polo shirts, red sweaters, green shorts, grey socks and green plaid dresses draped over the fences. And back into the room drift the sounds of chittering birds, the voices of other teachers and students and the cool, gentle breeze.

Classes begin at 8:15 am and go until 5 pm Monday-Friday. On Saturdays, lessons end at lunchtime. Each day there is a break for tea or porriage in the morning, a lunch break, and a tea break in the afternoon. In the evenings, boarding students attend lessons for a couple more hours.

The ages of students and amounts of time in school in Kenya is very similar to those things in the United States. Below is listed the Kenyan classess corresponding to their American equivelants.
*Baby class (preschool)
*Nursery class (Kindergarten)
*Standards 1-8 (Grades 1-8) (primary school = elementary/grade school)
*Forms 1-4 (high school years)
*University (typically 4 years)
Both primary school and secondary school are divided into three terms each, with the academic year beginning in January. Students have a few weeks of break during the months of April, August, and December. At the end of Standard 8 and of Form 4, students tak a national exam, competing against other students for positions in secondary schools, colleges, and universities. Standard 8 students are tested in five areas each worth 100 points. If a student attains a composite schore of 380 or above (which is difficult to do) in those areas (English, math, Kiswahili, science, and social studies/religion), he or she may be able to attend a national highschool.

In order to become a primary school teacher, a person must obtain a P1 education degree from a 2-year college. Secondary school teachers attend a university for four years, studying education and emphasizing two content areas. Unlike the United States in which graduation usually follows within about a week of final exams, the graduation dates are not set and it may be more than six months after a person has completed his or her collegiate studies before their exams are graded and the graduation ceremony takes place. It may be yet another six months or more before their certificates of completion are issued. Thus, teachers may teach for some time before officially graduating from a university. I’m thankful I was able to go to a four-year institution, graduate and get my diploma shortly after finishing.

This week we did the second of three examination periods for this term. Students were divided up and seated at desks with students from other classes (ie. a standard 8 student, with one from standard 4 and another from standard 6 at a desk together) so as to reduce the temptation to share answers. The three days consisted only of exams and reminded me of finals, but these are for young children—something I’m glad I never had to do. Students may be tested over material they’ve recently covered or that they learned a few years back.

The exams at the end of each term are the same taken by all students in a district and the schools compete against one another. Kimori Academy has a strong academic record, having sent 11 students to national schools last year. I enjoy most of my colleages and the majority of them are serious about teaching, unlike many teachers at the public schools who fail to show up for lessons that they are supposed to teach.

Like the unfamiliar examination process, I’ve needed to adjust to several things. For one, the grading/scoring works differently here, with 70% being a good grade and 50% being average. I still need to work on how I give out the scores, as mine are still inflated compared to those of the other teachers. Also, I had not fully recognized how much I used technology and electricity back at home or school. Teaching here has forced me to realize that they should not be taken for granted. I do not have the internet to use as a resource to look something up, nor can I use it to show an image or video. I do not have access to a library or even an overhead projector. During my planning time, I create an answer key for the exercises in the books. Correcting this weeks exams was a long and tedious process, because we had to create a grading scale to give the proper points to each portion of the exam (doing a lot of math with pen and paper), marked them all, then recorded the scores on paper, totaled them, and rewrote the list in order from highest to lowest scored with the students’ information. We place a piece of carbon paper between this one and the one below to create a duplicate for the school records. Computers and copy-machines save fare more time and energy than I’d ever given any thought to. Interestingly the students here take computer class, although they never see or use a computer, but rather learn the uses for them and terminology associated with them. Also students are caned with a stick for poor behavior or academic performance—a practice that makes me very uncomfortable, but is seen as apporpriate and acceptable by seemingly everyone in this culture. It occurs less at this school than at many, especially public institution throughout the country, I am told.

We began the normal lessons again and I went over the reasons why answers were/were not correct on the exam. And the school year goes on...