Are we there yet?

"I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells."
-Dr. Seuss

On Living with African Time:
I am living seven hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. I don't quite know what time zone I'm in but I do know living on African time is different then any time zone in existence. I'm a fairly flexible person. I like organization and schedules but I understand that we live in an ever changing environment and that last minute plans do exist. With that said, African time is difficult! Nobody seems to care if their on time in Kenya. For example, teachers have no problem arriving to a 35 minute lesson 15 minutes late. Even in life skills, teachers can conveniently forget about life skill sessions and have students clean the classroom forcing life skills to start ten minutes late. Even to book meeting here, you can't just send an email or call you have to go in person to book a meeting and send multiple phone followups and even then there's no guarantee that the meeting will actually happen. Even the people I interact with on a daily basis refer to African time and know its a joke to expect anyone to arrive on time or have anything submitted early. I can't help thinking that a little more organization would help people, organizations and schools be more efficient and more effective. Little kids in cares shouting 'Are we there yet?' is not as annoying as the phrase being the repeated soundtrack of everyday life in Africa.

One, Two, Skip, Four, Skip, Six- Why aren't you in Class?
I didn't even learning about what skipping meant until I was in high school. Skipping in primary school was unheard of in my childhood. I personally did not skip school until Grade Eleven and even then it was so infrequent because I needed and wanted to learn. Walking between schools and getting too and from different schools, I see many students just wandering the streets, kicking around  a ball or goofing off. These students should be in school not off doing their own thing. Students as young as eight can be seen skipping school. This is a problem because if students have already lost interest at that early of an age, how can you keep them in school for years too come? Teachers skipping school is also an issue. Teachers do legitimately miss school because they are ill or their children are feeling under the weather but the problem is there is no supply teacher system so the students are left unsupervised and can be left unsupervised as long as one week. Field Trips are also a problem. Because not all students can afford field trips, they are left at home and not allowed to come to school. This created more barriers because students can get into trouble on their own. Students being isolated from the education system because they cannot afford the system itself is an indicator of a flawed system.

Testing 1, 2, 3
Standardized Tests appear to be the norm in Kenya. Students' marks are solely based on three midterms and three final exams each year. Forget assignments and various tests and essays. These do not count, moreover, they do not happen. This system is hard for me to accept because I do not think it gives an accurate reading of teh students' knowledge and what they have learned over the entire term. Instead, it puts students under pressure to perform and disengages them from the classroom environment. The tests themselves also come with many challenges. First off, some of the exams begin at 7:20 in the morning. Think about the preparation a students would need just to write that exam. A student would need to get up at at least 5:30am to eat breakfast before the exam and walk to school in time. I have yet to see a classroom with electricity and it isn't light enough outside in the early morning to actually write quality exams. This makes the exams far more difficult then they need to be. Testing young children is also difficult. Demanding that young children (as young as three) perform well exams even if it is just testing them on shapes and colours is unnecessary. Age appropriate testing is necessary and does not necessarily mean paper and pencil examinations. Unfortunately there is no other option to introduce into the system. A variety of testing models and consistent practice is also needed to improve student performance. There are many elements within the education system including testing that put students at a bigger disadvantage then they already are.

Congratulations, you Failed!
Seeing some of the teachers mark student papers has been a consistent struggle. In one instance, the student got 21 out of 50 (42%) and the teacher awarded the student 26%. I know people make mistakes but I think mistakes like this are made too often from what I have witnessed. I also have asked a couple of teachers what they consider good marks on composition writing (precis or short essay). The responses have all indicated a mark between 16-24 out of 40. This means that teachers believe students failing is a good mark. I don't even know what more to say. The problem runs deeper then teachers not being able to do basic math but where to begin is unimaginable...