Being of the ‘if something’s worth doing then do it even if you don’t really have time’ persuasion (anyone surprised?) I tried to fit two days worth of material into one day in each of this week’s seminars.

On Monday this did not work – only two thirds of the invited teachers arrived and they seemed tired, my translator was distracted (he had other responsibilities that needed attention on his mobile phone  and was only with me because the stand-in he’d organised had come down with malaria) and there was no ‘energy’ in the room.  We finished all the tasks but I wasn’t convinced that we were at all ‘on the same page’.

The evaluation sheets declared the teachers to mostly ‘strongly agree’ that they would use the  activities with their pupils, that they would share the new knowledge with their colleagues and that the information received was useful.  They went away happily enough with their signed and stamped certificates but I thought as they departed that I would be surprised if I saw clinometers in use in these schools next year.

I thought about the reasons and it occurred to me that none of the teachers had brought the 10m tape from the ‘equipment to bring’ request – I had foolishly assumed that as the syllabus says ‘pupils will use a clinometer and a 10m tape measure to determine distances that cannot be directly measured’ that schools would have this equipment.  Not so!  The schools could buy 10m measuring tapes with their capitation grant but why would you spend money on expensive items that would be used on 2 or 3 days in a year by a very small number of students when the school community is crying out for basics like desks and books?  The schools don’t have the equipment needed to do the tasks the syllabus mandates!

I had seen a class do a measuring activity sharing one 1m wooden ruler between 70 children.  I suggested then to the teacher that using one metre long pieces of twine, a common & cheap locally made material, would be a way to better achieve the aim she intended.  I applied the same reasoning to the clinometer problem.

Tuesday’s groups measured out pieces of twine 5 m long using my tape measure and used those in the clinometer task.  Instead of needing to measure the distance from the tree to the place from whence its top was being ‘sighted’  we used the rope to stand exactly 5m from the tree and sighted the top from there.  The same aim is achieved and the problem becomes easier as you can work out your scale at the beginning!  So Tuesday we had a happier group of teachers (and a happier mathematics advisor!)

Wednesday and Thursday this week have been Seminar free as teachers are invigilating the Standard IV exams. (All other children stay home from school on these days.)   The results will be known in term 1 next year and we’ll see whether the practice exam and analysis made a difference in the 5 wards where I’ve been working.  My Standard VII practice exam is well underway so I’m hoping for some noticeable improvement over the results from the year before!  World Vision has offered to sponsor the practice exam and pay for photocopying, invigilation and prizes for children who do well.  That will be lovely provided teachers and pupils get the feedback on areas needing revision.

As Steve and I walked home on Wednesday afternoon we intersected with a group of children who had obviously just finished an exam – probably Form II in this case.  The sounds of children relieved that something unpleasant is over are universal!  They surrounded us, chatting loudly in kiSwahili and English (showing off!), then moved on.

Friday’s seminar was for the smallest ward and I expected the least number of teachers.  We started the morning with just 5 and soon were ‘Algebra Snap’ing with a solid understanding of like and unlike terms.  Six more arrived and we moved on to making and using clinometers.  One of the teachers shamefacedly told me that he avoided teaching the topic in Std VII because he didn’t know how to do it – now he does and we are all happy!

One more of this series to go then I trawl through the evaluation sheets and plan a new series for 2011.

On  a different matter entirely ….

Last Sunday we had lunch at a local restaurant with a group of volunteers – VSOs, ex-VSOs and others variously from Scotland, England, Germany and the US.  One of the volunteers, who works at a local teachers’ training college, was telling us how during the week she’d unexpectedly had no girls in her class.  Where were they?  Being compulsorily pregnancy tested by the school’s matron – any found to be pregnant would not be welcome back at the college after the Christmas holiday.

A lot of hilarity ensued on how the male trainee teachers could be tested to see if they had contributed to any pregnancy but then we had the serious discussion on the lack of fairness of the whole thing.

It happens so often – just when I’m feeling comfortably at home here something happens to remind me that I could be on a different planet.  Being in Tanzania feels not just like a change in place but also a change in time back to the 1950s!