You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it.

National Examinations are a BIG DEAL in Tanzania.  They are used to assess individual pupils and to rank schools, wards, districts and regions.

Pupils in Standard IV are tested in an exam that once determined if a pupil was promoted to Standard V.  Promotion is now automatic but the exam with its attendant secrecy and armed guards remain!  It is held in November, towards the end of the school year, with results released in Term I of the following year, which leaves pupils to stew over Christmas.

The Standard VII examinations, also known as the PSLEs (Primary School Leavers Examinations) are held in early September.  These are important as they determine which pupils go on to secondary school, and to which school they will go.  Preparation for these exams starts in Standard V as work from the final three years of primary schooling is examined in the five major subjects – KiSwahili, English, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies.  Preparation starts to get serious after the first term’s mid-term break when the first of a series of practice exams or ‘mocks’ take place.

 If you are a regular reader of this blog you will know that I was preparing practice exams for printing just before the Teacher Mentor run training days.  The first of these practice exams has recently been held, the answer sheets have been marked and now comes the first test of my influence in this area.  What feedback will the schools, teachers and, most importantly, the pupils receive?

Feedback to pupils regarding exams has traditionally been limited.  Secrecy surrounds the  National exams as well as practice exams as they frequently contain errors. Teachers, themselves poorly educated, have not wanted to give pupils back corrected work in case they themselves are found to have made an error in teaching or in marking.  This has meant that all the feedback a pupil receives is a percentage score – often a source of discouragement rather than encouragement.  The pupil has no idea which questions were done correctly and in which areas more work is needed.

When fattening pigs the feeding regime changes as the pigs put on fat and muscle – the weighing has a purpose.

I agreed to write and type up exams in the new multiple choice format on the understanding that pupils and teachers would get useful feedback.  So far all I am getting is (smiling) promises that it will happen – after this and after that!  The current standoff is that the papers have to be “released by the DEO” and that can’t happen until June 4^th.  Term ends on June 10^th for a 4 week break.  Will pupils get their question papers and answer sheets back before then?  Just at the moment I am pessimistic but open to a delightful surprise!

Yesterday we visited two of the local tourist attractions – Ntoma Beach and Maruku Falls -  with three younger volunteers.

At Ntoma Beach we watched the fishermen hauling in their net.  It was quite Biblical!  A lot of effort was expended for a very small return of less than half a dozen fish.

At Maruku Falls we became the ‘tourist attraction’ for these local lads.

My VSO colleague, Wilhelmina, has been conducting workshops in our wards for teachers and school committee members to enhance the skills of the committee members and to improve working relationships between teachers and the committees.

One of the activities has been particularly interesting.  A mixed group of teachers and committee members, around 5 – 6 in number, is given 3 large sheets of paper, a handful of plastic drinking straws, scissors, masking tape and a stapler and is told to “build a school”.  

I have attended four of these workshops this week and watched about 15 groups in action.  No group yet has asked “What are the specifications?” or “What should it look like?”.  All groups have based their building on the classroom structure they are sitting in.  No group yet has counted the materials or made a plan before starting building – they have launched straight in to taping straws together and folding the paper into a rectangle.  Most groups have constructed something, most have ‘finished’ a building and two groups only have asked for more materials.  The resultant buildings have been instructive as to building methods in Tanzania!

While we were busy in the classroom with the teachers at Katoma ‘B’ PS there was a soccer match happening outside – Katoma v Karwoshe which went 4-2 in Katoma’s favour.  Several hundred primary and secondary school children were present either watching the game or ‘hanging out’ with no teacher supervision!

When you were at primary school did you use the SRA reading and comprehension program?  It was certainly popular in Australia in the 1960s when I was at Wodonga State School No 37.  

VSO volunteers David Jackson and Jonathan Coolidge have devised a similar program specifically for primary school children in the Kagera region of Tanzania.

The Kagera Reading Program is a set of 60 short stories and passages with associated word lists and comprehension exercises, each on a separate laminated card.  There are also cards with the answers and a card with an explanation for the teacher about how to use the program most effectively in the classroom.

Thanks to some very generous friends in Australia, Steve and I have bought 16 sets of these at about A$50 for each set.  I am working on a program to get them into schools before we leave.

Hildegarda, the english teacher at Nyakato PS has taken a set and is trialling it in her classes.  In a week or so she will run a demonstration lesson to show the other english teachers in Nyakato Ward how to use the program.  If they choose to use it, each school will receive their own set of the program.  I have asked the Nyakato Ward Education Co-ordinator (WEC) to monitor the use of the sets of cards – I don’t want them locked in drawers and never seeing the light of day!

I have also talked to the WEC from Karabagaine Ward about the program and hope to have a demonstration teacher at Kabale school too – that is where those beautiful children on the front of the Teaching Aids & Resources book are pupils.

Thanks especially to Bruce and Norm Anderson and to Rev Peter Cook and the Hamilton Uniting Church for their very generous donations that have allowed this to go ahead.