Mock Exam Results

So the education system in Tanzania is as follows: Primary school goes from standard 1 to standard 7. At the end of standard 7, students need to pass a national exam in order to continue with their education. Students who “pass” the national exam move onto secondary school. I put pass in parenthesis because by western standards, the huge majority of them still fail miserably…I’m not sure what the grades are for primary schools but for secondary school, a 25% is passing….So, in secondary school, students study from form I – IV. In form I and form II students take nine subjects: civics, history, English, Kiswahili, math, physics, chemistry, biology, and geography. At the end of form II, students again need to take a National Test (called the NECTA). However, since so many students were failing the form II NECTA, in all it’s infinite wisdom, it was decided that although students still need to take the test, they can continue on to form III even if they do not pass the test (again, passing is a 25%). After form II students can drop physics and chemistry, so in form III and form IV, students study between 7 and 9 subjects. Again in form IV, students take a NECTA. The results of the form IV NECTA decide whether a student can continue on to A-Level. Students who pass their NECTAs are selected to A-Level schools, where they study a combination of three subjects. The subjects they study are dependent on which subjects they did well in on their form IV NECTA.

So every year, schools do what are called “mock exams”. Like the name implies, they are mock NECTA exams. Students in form II and form IV, sit for a week of tests to help prepare them for the real thing. This happened about 3 weeks ago in my region of Tanzania. And we got the results back today. My school was 34/204 in math and 127/204 in biology (I forgot the exact numbers so I am estimating a bit, but I remember we were about the 20th percentile for math and about the 50th for biology). That sounds pretty good right? We’re about average!

Yea. Great. 7 of the 104 students in the form IV at my school did not fail biology. Yes, 97 students got an “F” in biology. The 7 that did not get an F, got a D. Let me remind you that an F is anything under a 25%. A D is between a 25% and a 40%. Nobody got above a 40% and still we did better than about 50% of the schools in the region. Really? That’s ridiculous.

As we were looking at the results the other teachers and I got to talking about what the problem was. I said that I thought that the syllabi were way to long so that the students did not get the chance to understand the material because they were rushing through the material too much. The other teachers disagreed because it’s not like everyone fails, there are a few people that pass…the problem is that the students do not study enough, they just hang around and don’t do anything.

Let me tell you the school-day schedule for my school. Students wake up at 6 am to do “usafi” (cleaning the school grounds) They then bathe and must be in the classroom by 7 am. They have school between 7:30-2:00 with a half hour chai break. From 3:00-5:00 students have remedial classes, meaning teachers can enter the classroom to teach more – if a teacher is not entering the classroom, then students do not need to be studying, but most days, students study during remedial time. From 8:00 – 11:00 students have “prep time”. All students are required to be in the classroom between these hours. Students study plenty here! They are studying, literally, all day. How can people think that it is the students fault? That they are not studying enough? The problem is that the syllabus is so ridiculously long, the tests are written so difficult, teachers are not super qualified to teach (I mean so of them, I’m sure got 26% on their NECTAs and are now teaching the material), and students don’t understand English. I mean, why does it matter how much they study if the material they are studying the do not understand?

It’s frustrating. However much I try to teach…most of my students will still fail. And, I’m not even that great of a teacher. It’s difficult to learn the material the night before and then have to teach it. What this country needs is to switch secondary education to Swahili or primary education to English so that students would either learn English in primary school and therefore understand English by the time they reach secondary school or they need to switch secondary school to Swahili so that students understand what the heck they are learning about. The way it is n

Peace Corps Tanzania Packing List

In the past several weeks, I have recieved some emails and a few facebook messages from my future wenzangu volunteers. In honor of the 35 some-odd education volunteers that we will be recieving at the end of this month, my site-mate (Andrew) and I wish to compile a list of "burdens to bear" and "parcels to pitch"

Kwanza. Burdens to Bear - stuff we brought and/or brought and are glad we did.
-Warm clothes. What you're going to Africa, why the heck would we need a fleece jacket and wool socks? Maybe you'll be stuck in Tanga, where you wish it was culturally appropriate to skinny-dip in an ice bath. Or you could end up in Mbeya, where, more often than not, in order to reach your classroom you need to trudge out in the fog'n rain and it 50-degrees out. But we have the best fruit :) Thank you rain.
-Computer. When you have 200 math papers to mark, you'll be really glad that you have a computer with 3 full seasons of Chuck, a season of Glee, and some Eureka, along with a handful of movies. (ps - for those coming this month, we formally request the second half of Eureka-season 3 and season 4, the second half of season 1 of Glee, season 2 of Dollhouse, and the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs.) Computers are also good for digital resources that are floating around the country.
-Good cooking knives unless, of cource, you want to try to decapitate a chicken with a knife that is as sharp as the edge of a wooden table. Not fun for the chicken.
-A textbook or two of the subject you are teaching (Andrew disagrees with me here. But I think he is wrong)
-Headlamp. For when electricity sucks.
-Spices. Because rice and beans get boring.
-Floss. Because my daddy thinks that flossing multiple times a day is normal and fun. And necessary. So two years worth of floss: whether that is one roll of twenty...Dad, how many rolls do you reccommend?
- Undies and bras - Unless you want to buy the low-quality(possibly pre-worn) undies and bras that they sell at the local duka. Andrew thinks its OK to wear pre-worn bras because at worst there's a little bit of milk-leakage.
-Maps are fun to look at
-A fun book to read. Don't bring to many. The PCV Tanzania book exchange will always be available.
-Andrew suggests clothes hangers.

DON'T OVERPACK ON CLOTHES. BUY THEM HERE.
TYPICALLY WORN IN ONE WEEK:
ANDREW: One pair of pants. Three collared shirts (2 of them Tanzania print shirts, bought here), two pairs of socks, 4 or 5 pairs of underwear, 3 undershirts.

KATIE: 3 skirts/shirts (many of them bought here in Tanzania), 7 pairs of undies, pair of pants, t-shirt.

Our point: Hand-washing is a bitch, the acceptable length between washings is dramatically increased. You'll also be able to buy clothes here for super cheap. Don't pack tons of clothes. Its silly.


PARCELS TO PITCH
-Mirror - They cost about the equivalent of 30 cents.
-Medicine - PC gives you a ton of medicine.
-Pillows and sheets - Unless you just can't let go of your little Mermaid sheets, PC gives you pillows and sheets, so don't waste your two bags trying to fit in a pillow.
-"One extra nice dress for special functions" - waste of money! They will get ruined. Mabye bring and extra $10 so you can buy fabric and get it sewn here. The only time Andrew has worn his extra nice dress was on a cruise. In Greece. Never in Tanzania.
-The TZ packing list suggests you bring 6 different pairs of shoes. This is silly. Bring one nice pair of dress shoes, and pair of walking shoes, and a pair of sandals. If you need more, buy them here.
-Cookbook. You get one here, which uses locally available foods.

Our advice is to PACK LIGHT. You get two bags and 80 pounds. Don't fill it. During PST, you will get a LOT of stuff, and somehow you need to get all that stuff on a bus to site, after PST. Most things you can buy here, for cheaper (and sometimes lower quality) than you'd buy in the states. But if Tanzanians do without them, so can you.

Look forward to meeting all the new volunteers! Hope your next 3 weeks in the States is great. Make sure to eat lots icecream and cheese and drink some good American beer, with come good company. It'll be a long time before you have it again!