A Schooling Adventure- Michael

A few weeks back we visited a rural primary school 1 ½ hours south of Kigali with a volunteer who was working with teachers to improve teaching techniques.  We observed and helped the teachers as we could. We came the week before final exams and the end of the school year for Rwandans.  The students were reviewing and preparing for the tests, which is a big deal for most of them.  The attitude about school is very positive.  It is the only way for people to rise above the poor farmer status.

We split into groups and helped in different classes.  I helped and observed in P5 (5^th grade) English and math class and P2 (2^nd grade) math.

The P5 classroom, 25ft long and 15ft wide, was very basic with two large blackboards and a few hand drawn posters on the wall.  About 70 kids shared 18 wooden desks with 3 or 4 others.  The desks were only a meter long.  The class had kids of many ages.  Most looked around 12-13yrs old (it is hard to tell because many are malnourished and smaller than they should be).  Some were 15 and 16yrs old.

We listened to the local teacher and observed the kids work.  They copied a paragraph in English and answered questions about the paragraph.  When someone answered correctly, the class would clap and chant:

“Clap for him!

Another day

do the same.”

The teacher gave them a comprehension test about the paragraph.  I observed the students around me work; a few answered correctly, but most did not seem to understand or know what to do.

So English classes in Rwanda are a bit rough.  The country switched from French to English in the schools 2 years ago.  Teachers needed to learn and teach English overnight.   All the teachers have a strong accent, making it difficult for the students to get the correct pronunciations. 

Most teaching in public schools involves writing information on the board and having the students copy and memorize with little or no understanding.  A lot of the kids in P5 could not hold a conversation beyond “How are you.” with me. 

In Math class, we worked with the local teacher and set up a quiz to review.  The math was in English so it was easy to communicate. We divided the class into teams and kept score so that there was competition. We quizzed them with simple problems like finding the area of a square and circle.  The kids were good, but when we asked them to find the area of a triangle they tried to solve it with the Pythagorean Theorem!?!   

We learned a lot and appreciated the experience.  It made us appreciate our ways of learning and doing school.  Also made us realize the need for helping teachers to learn English better. 

  

                       Handball with the School Kids-  Nathan

For 3 hours we observed and sat with the patient, energetic, and eager kids without a break.  Along with my mom, brothers, and friends I helped teach colors with bottle caps to the P1 class (1^st gr), explained prepositions and helped explain the meanings of difficult English words to the P5 class (5^th gr), reviewed simple geometry with the P6 (6gr)class, and also observed classes taught by the Rwandan teachers.

  For the break we played sports with the kids:  volleyball, football (soccer), a Rwandan version of duck, duck, goose, throwing javelins, and handball.  Daniel and I went with the handball group.  My brother and I had never played handball before, but we learned fast with the kids help. When we came to the handball field, I could not tell a difference between it and a football field, except the smaller topped off goals and semi-circles. 

Handball is a combination of rugby, and football.  It is mostly the same as football except using hands instead of feet. Passing the ball in the air, we made our way down the dirt field to the goal. To score, we had to throw the ball into the goal and not cross the semi-circle line around the goal. There were a lot of long throws, so the ball traveled fast, and we traveled fast to catch it.

Though they played hard, many of the kids were malnourished. Some had distended bellies, others were very short, possibly from lack of good food.  Most of the kids were 12 and up, and I was about 1 ½ feet taller than all of them, including a 16 year old boy.  

We played and played, sweating in the scorching midday sun. I sure got tired out, but the kids though malnourished, gave us a run for our money.