Education in Kenya...a few perspectives

Education in Kenya is drastically different than in the US. I (Talia) have been helping out in a 3^rd grade classroom for the past couple weeks. On the first day, the school principal gave us a tour of the school, introducing us to all of the classes. We were warmly welcomed with a unison “Welcome to Class ____. We are pleased to meet you,” followed by a few songs or poem. The performing arts seem to be very highly valued here!

Upon entering the 3^rd grade class, I introduced myself and the class proceeded to sing and dance for the remainder of the day (about 45 minutes). The kids all had beaming smiles and let me tell you, they know how to move their bodies. However, the next day I was in for even more of a surprise. I arrived to find the teacher absent, and two girls in front of the class leading English exercises from a workbook. As Zoe and Lena have both recounted, teachers often leave the class for long periods, but I was shocked to see this in such a young class. The other students listened to their peers with respect and we later learned that the teacher had assigned these two girls to lead the class, but did not tell them what to teach. The discipline and responsibility instilled in these kids is unbelievable. Every day, all of the kids clean the entire school, scrubbing the floor with rags, emptying the coals from the fire used to cook lunch and tea, watering every plant, etc. When I tried to explain the concept of janitors to the teachers, they were amused.

This week, I had the opportunity to introduce these students to computers and the Internet. We brought 12 computers (donated by TCAPS) with us and have donated 8 to this school. I brought a group of students to the “computer lab” and tried to explain that you can look up anything on the Internet. They began by googling Michigan and giggled at all of the pictures. As these kids started to explore the power of the Internet, looking up snow, fireworks, lions and cakes, I began to try to imagine a world without the Internet, without everything so easily accessible- it’s pretty tough. I think that my generation’s concept of the world has been transformed by the advent of the Internet. The ease of communication and the capability to search for anything at any time makes the world seem smaller, while simultaneously opening up new ideas, questions, people and places. Thus, it is no wonder these kids were so surprised and excited to begin to explore “the Internet.”

I, Lena, had the chance to attend two different schools.  The first school, Chogoria Complex, is a primary, mixed, day school – which means boys and girls from 4-14 years attend, during the day only.  (I wrote about this school in an earlier blog.) 

This week, I attended Chogoria Girls Primary Boarding School (though I only went during the day).  Unlike at Complex, the girls at the boarding school come from all over the region, even as far as Nairobi (3 hours drive).  They come from so far because the school has top academic scores on state exams.  There are about 650 girls in the whole school, in grades 5-8.  In my class, there are 42 girls.  Both schools are just a block from where we live.

Just like at Complex, the students have a huge amount of responsibility for leading the class when the teacher is gone.  This morning at school, the girls were alone in their class for about three hours.  In that time, we did “revision” (checking previous work) for Swahili, English and Science.  The “prefect” (a head student) leads the class and chooses another girl to help.  Everyone pays attention, because if they don’t, the prefect will tell the teacher who is being bad.

At Assembly this morning, a teacher announced each grade’s place on the previous national exams for each subject, and compared them to 16 other schools.  Next week, class 7 (which I am in) has national exams, so this is my only week here. They take national exams at the end of each term.  There are 3 terms a year, and the school year begins in January.  They have year round school, so each term lasts 3 months, with a month in between.

At the boarding school the girls showed me their dorms and I got to see what their lives are like and that was all very interesting. On a final note, I am very grateful I had the experience to see both schools because they are both very interesting and different from each other.