Monday went according to plan! We visited four schools in Nyakato Ward with the Ward Education Coordinator (WEC) and saw four lessons that all, for better or worse, incorporated “use of teaching aids” and/or “participatory methods”.

In each school Josiah and I, the WEC, the Head Teacher and which ever other teachers cared to, observed one teacher (or a team approach in one school!) teach a mathematics lesson.  If teachers of other classes came to observe then their classes sat quietly, unsupervised, in their classroom.

We have stressed the importance of group work, but maybe too hard because we have seen it used inappropriately – collaborative addition of 5 digit numbers by groups of 10 using digits written on small pieces of paper to form the answer! We need to go back and talk about how and when to use group work.

We have encouraged the use of teaching aids and on this day one teacher was so nervous about his ‘performance’ that he forgot to use the aids he had prepared.

We have encouraged active participation of pupils in lessons and today saw pupils ‘racing’ to place numbers in their correct place value and also a ‘play’ showing the steps in solving a linear equation.

We also visited a school that would put most Australian schools to shame for its creative use of spaces inside and outside classrooms to make pupils think!  This is the artist responsible – Sweetbert Mujemula - who was inspired by Jim and Sue Taylor, previous VSO volunteers in Bukoba.

Tuesday we modified ‘the plan’ – four schools in one day was just a few too many!  Tuesday we visited Katoma B and Karwoshe Primary Schools.  At both these schools I presented Certificates of achievement for last year’s Standard VII Exam results.  That is always a pleasant responsibility.

Karwoshe received two – 100% Pass and Most Improved English scores.  The Head Teacher, Sweetbert Michael, was very pleased.

We observed a Std V class learning about odd and even numbers.  The teacher divided the class into two teams for a competition.  What names did the teams choose?  Arsenal and Manchester United!

I also went to see the printer about my book – the printing hasn’t started yet!  I have stressed my need to have them by March 6^th in time for the next series of seminars.  Will keep you posted on developments.

Wednesday was a day in the office for me while our car was prepared for the trip to Serengeti.  It started badly for Steve when the police stopped him and inspected the car for its Fire Safety Sticker and fire extinguisher – out of date 8 and 6 months respectively!  Steve promised to rectify this and was sent on his way.  Meanwhile I was in the office redesigning my Schemes of Work – there is only one correct way to write these and that is in a table of 13 columns!  I also waited (in vain) for my scheduled phone conference with VSO Tanzania Education Program Officer. 

Wednesday was scheduled as an Office day rather than a school visit day because of an important Education Office meeting that Josiah should attend – as it turned out the meeting was cancelled because the Minister for Construction (or some such) had decided to visit Bukoba and all the ‘important people’ wanted to meet with him instead.  [The Minister’s visit also delayed our dinner last night – a 1 ½ hour wait for fried fish and mashed potato – as he and his retinue were staying at our favourite haunt, the Kolping.]

I walked down to town after work to collect the car.  The exhaust system was fixed (it doesn’t sound like a racing car anymore) but we still had no emergency spare. I drove back up the hill to get what Steve thought was the best of the four old tyres but when I delivered it to the mechanic he thought it not good enough to use even in an emergency.  So now we had the fire extinguisher and the tyre to sort out the next day as well as scheduled visits to four schools in Katerero Ward!

Thursday we drove to the office prepared for what could be a very long day!  It started looking that way when the first job was to take Josiah home again to get the office key!  Finally after collecting the Certificates from the now unlocked office we headed down the hill to town.  I waited for the mechanic at the car dealers with the other three old tyres, while Steve and Josiah went to sort out the Fire Safety Sticker.  An hour later we had the sticker (Valid June 2010 to June 2011 so we’ll have to get another before we leave!), a receipt for the fire extinguisher which is being ‘serviced’ and the promise of an emergency spare for our trip to Serengeti – fire extinguisher and tyre to be picked up this afternoon. 

At 9:30 (only one hour late) we met the Katerero WEC at Kanazi PS – one of the four schools due to receive a Certificate of Achievement.  He was there with the Head Teachers of all the Katerero primary schools and the teacher in charge of stores at each school, having a meeting regarding budgets and requisitions.  A quick discussion ensued and we did the Certificate presentation to the four Head Teachers then and there.  This was excellent!   A saving of several hours, and I hadn’t really been looking forward to the trip to Mpumulo and to Kigabiro – lovely schools, horrible roads!

The Head Teacher from Kemondo PS was at the meeting so I told all the other Head Teachers how well Kemondo had done and to pester her as to how she does it.  Then I popped into the Standard I mathematics class and was treated to some beautiful counting – both chanted and sung!  A good day’s work done and we were back in Bukoba by 10:45 – in time for morning tea.

This afternoon, strictly according to plan, I have picked up the spare tyre and the fire extinguisher and tomorrow we are off to Serengeti.  If all goes well my next blog will have pictures of elephants and giraffes.

If not going according to plan can be ‘normal’ then I have had a normal week.

Monday I was scheduled to visit three schools in a southern ward of the Bukoba District.  When I arrived at the office Josiah was snowed under with extra work to get World Vision funding for some disadvantaged District schools so I bravely said I’d go on my own.  The first two schools are on the main road so there was little chance of me getting lost and the third is on a road that features often in my nightmares about driving here (I still can’t figure out how Michelle fitted the Suzuki between the truck and the pile of rocks while going down that rocky 1:1 incline) and I know it well!  The Ward Education Coordinator was going to meet me at Mubembe and help with the translation issues.

Two of the schools I visited were government schools and one was a private school.  The differences were stark! One of the government schools is so lacking in classrooms that it is running ‘double sessions’.  Half the students come at a time and although the school day goes a little later in to the afternoon the students are getting less classroom time than they should.  The Standard VII class I observed had about 80 students crowded 3 and 4 to a desk yet you could have heard a pin drop when the teacher was talking.  The teacher used group work and teaching aids to make the algebra class effective and enjoyable.  Another mentor found!

The private school has a pupil teacher ratio of about 18:1 and there are additional ‘teacher assistants’ in most classes.  The children are in no way as advantaged as a child in a typical Australian primary school classroom but the gulf between Bethania and Kemondo Primary Schools is immense. 

Yet both achieved 100% pass rate in the 2010 Standard VII exams, totally understandable and expected for Bethania, but as for Kemondo – I am going to keep asking the Head Teacher until she tells me her secret strategies for success!

These are the pre-school children at Mubembe PS – they don’t see too many Wazungu and became quite excited.

Tuesday I declared a training day for Josiah.  He was working on his application for WV project funds but all the numbers he’d carefully put in an Excel spreadsheet had vanished.  I said not to worry, I’d find them (more in hope than certainty) and luckily was able to retrieve them.  We then practised saving documents in logical places and using ‘insert formula’ rather than using a calculator to do the arithmetic and then entering results.  This was much more useful than me travelling off into the wilds of Katerero to schools that are quite a way off the beaten track on my own and (possibly) never being seen again.  I have my second teacher resource book well under way and appreciated the chance to work on that.

We will do more review visits next week and it will be possibly a good thing to leave some until March when (and this was to everyone’s great surprise and delight!) a new VSO volunteer comes to work with the BDC.  I learned on Tuesday that an expert on Education Management who has worked in Tanzania before so understands the context here well should arrive in March.  More about that when I know more!

 On Monday it was decided that Wednesday would be a public holiday rather than the alternative day, which was Tuesday.  It was an Islamic Holy Day (possibly the Prophet’s Birthday) but the shape of the moon influences when the celebration should be held and that is only decided at the last minute. 

So on Wednesday we packed the thermos, teabags and powdered milk and travelled up to Rubafu Point, about 40 km north of Bukoba, to looked at Uganda across a short stretch of lake.  There is a big fishing industry there with refrigerated trucks bringing fish back to Bukoba for processing and export.  I liked this photo of  a fishing settlement, taken from the road high above it – the colours and its slight out of focus-ness put me in mind of a Cezanne painting.

I also have a giggle whenever I see this version of the ‘ventilation brick’ that is employed above windows in local constructions – a great advertising coup by a multinational giant!

Thursday Josiah was not well so again I was in the office, working on my new opus, when two colleagues, fresh back from a month long training course, came in to ask me if  I’d run some mathematics training days in the further reaches of the District.  They have undertaken to organise all the logistics and the budget. (I think they’d done work on planning at their training course!)  I asked if mentors from ‘my wards’, whom I had selected, could come and help with the training, and as that seemed to be acceptable, we agreed to start this new program as soon as I’m back from Serengeti in March.  This is an excellent plan  – if it all goes as I hope – I just have to do the training component and not worry about transport, refreshments, etc.  I just need to get those teacher resource booklets!  They are still scheduled to be printed by February 22^nd and all will still be fine even if there is a week’s delay.

Friday Josiah returned looking fit and well.  We made more plans for next week!  I’ll let you know how many work out.

Children across the road from our house doing a physics experiment.

 ( Or playing on a see-saw they've made?)

This week I have continued my third round of review visits – 12 schools in 4 days, with another 17 to do next week.  I am looking for evidence that VSO’s work in Bukoba District has led to a change in teaching practice towards a more participatory approach and I am looking for “champion” teachers who will be trained as mentors and will then train teachers in their own schools and in schools in their own and adjacent wards.  I am also presenting certificated signed by the District Education Officer to schools who improved their Standard VII exam results from 2009 to 2010.

This is the moment of truth as, in part, it is my effectiveness as the BRDC’s Mathematics Advisor that is being tested.

Monday was discouraging!  Steve suggested I rate my days with a score out of 10.  Monday was only a ‘3’.  I was disappointed with the lessons I observed – I have found previously that Mondays can be problematic.  The only highlight was being able to present a certificate of improvement that I hope will be an encouragement to the teachers at that school.

Tuesday was a “day off”.  We have been in contact with a married couple from the US who, as newly weds, had been teachers in a Bukoba District secondary school nearly 50 years ago.  They contacted us as they are also keen bird watchers and were interested in seeing some of Steve’s Bukoba Specials.  We met the Dicksons on Monday night for dinner and on Tuesday went to Nyakato Secondary to be part of the celebration planned for them as they revisited the school for only the second time since they’d left in 1965.  It was a wonderful occasion for us to be part of, with a school assembly on the grass under the trees and singing, traditional Haya music and dancing, poems specially written by the boys and speeches (including an impromptu one from me – I should have known I would be called on & prepared something suitable!)   


We were privileged to sign the Visitors’ Book that had been in constant use since the school’s opening in 1922 and had many famous signatures including that of Julius Nyerere, the founding President of the Republic of Tanzania. 

Wednesday I was back on the road visiting schools while Steve was off bird watching with the Dicksons.  For me Wednesday was a ‘9’! The teachers were lively; they had prepared interesting lessons and were using teaching aids of their own design.  I showed the teachers at one school a way of teaching adding and subtracting integers (+ve & -ve numbers) using bottle caps.  At the next school, one of the teachers who was travelling with us for the day demonstrated the method to the teachers there.  I had found some mentors!

Thursday was a ‘6’. The visits highlighted some of the big problems the school system faces here.  Teacher shortages mean some schools are understaffed, and there is no equity in the staffing.  One school had 1 teacher per 50 students, another school, 1/2 hour closer to town and much easier to get to, had 1 teacher per 20 students.  Teachers in both schools are paid the same rate even though the teachers in the first are working much harder - more books to mark and less preparation time.  The children at that school are among the poorest I have seen - many without shoes and the uniform in tatters. 

One tiny, little thing in the Standard 2 class was trying to write with a pencil about 2 cm long.  I gave her mine.  She will be the only child in Kagera with a pencil stamped Proudly Made in Australia!  She seemed such a bright little thing but her future probably holds working on the family shamba (farmlet) from the time she leaves primary school, marrying young and being forever financially dependent on the males in her life.  Girls from this part of the district rarely pass the Standard 7 and very few go to high school.  [A teenage girl in many parts of Africa has a higher probability of dying in childbirth than of finishing high school.]  Unless they do well enough to get into a secondary boarding school, the children here are limited to the local secondary, at least an hour’s walk away from their village.  The boys have more opportunity to find paid employment than the girls.  Boys start truanting frequently from about Standard 5 and though required by law to be at school until they have done the Standard 7 exam it is impractical to enforce this, as families need the money the boys can earn.

Friday was a happy day – I think an ‘8’.  I saw some great classes and was able to present another certificate.  I also caused chaos as many of the children rarely see a Mzungo and were keen to study a live specimen up close.

More school visits in the coming week and I hope to be able to report more days in the ‘8’ and ‘9’ category.

Book Update – I have approved the final proofs and hope for delivery on February 22^nd.  The publisher’s graphic designer has ‘fixed’ the cover and it will now look like this!

We walked along the lake shore behind the Fish Factory looking at birds this afternoon.  There were a few people down there, washing their clothes and washing their bodies as well. (Maybe Sunday is not the best time to go there!)  This photo is looking back up the hill towards our house – the (rust) red roofed house right at the top and slightly left of centre is ours. 'Town' is between us and the lake hiding behind the trees.

This week I return to the schools to see if last year’s seminars have had any impact on teaching practice.  Fingers crossed!

On Saturday we travelled to Katoke, 40 minutes south of Bukoba, to the Katoke Teacher Training College, to participate in a workshop on making and using teaching aids.

Katoke TTC has been training teachers in the Kagera region for over 50 years.  It began as an Anglican college and in the past has had missionaries from Australia and New Zealand.  It is now a Tanzanian Government institution but among its staff are VSO volunteers who are currently contributing to giving the students a curious English accent – a mix of Scot and Lancastrian!

Rhona Brown, Scottish-speaking English Tutor at Katoke, organised the workshop, which was held in the wonderful college library. 

Sheila Rudd is the librarian and reason the students use “shoovels” when digging holes though I think she's from Manchester rather than Blackburn!

The library is a wonderful space. Built with Swedish money many years ago it is large and airy.  The College is justifiably proud of it.

As we were “setting up” the Principal Mr Lugalema found time to welcome us to the college before he headed off to town for a meeting.

Tables were arranged around the library and samples of teaching aids – flash cards, games, puppets and posters were spread out for the college students to peruse and play with.  Rhona had organised a roster so that students from each of the classes were allotted a time to come in – although it is nice to be ‘mobbed’ like a rock star it is easier to talk to smaller groups!

The sessions were optional, being held on a Saturday afternoon, but with BTP (teaching rounds) starting in a week the students seemed keen to get some extra ideas to try out in the classrooms at their practice schools.

Rhona had the students singing and dancing.  Action songs are terrific for teaching younger (and older!) students the vocabulary needed in both English and kiSwahili.  “Heads and shoulders, knees and toes” is a perennial favourite.  “What’s the time Mr Wolf?” was also popular, possibly because of the mask that went with being “Mr Wolf”.  Rhona also showed the students how to make puppets from wooden spoons, old socks and their thumbs.

Sheila had put out books from the college library collection that reinforced the participatory teaching and learning idea.

The teachers and students I have worked with believe, I’m sure, that all areas of mathematics can be better taught using cardboard box, bottle caps and string!  Plenty of that was in evidence on Saturday.

The college mathematics lecturer, Mr Stedius, came to lend his support and spent an hour or so of his time demonstrating the teaching aids to the students.  The Principal also returned while the workshop was in progress and is keen for a re-run that can be videotaped and kept as an instructional tool!

The afternoon was also a chance for me to promote “The Book”!  Copies will be given to the College library – Sheila expects to have students knocking down the doors in the rush to borrow them when they arrive next month – and the students will also be able to buy their own copy at the subsidised price.

Thanks again to all of you who have supported the project.