Teaching in Africa

A new school year started on January 21, and thus began a new year of teaching kids Agriculture and HIV Life Skills here in Lesotho. I feel more confident this year as a teacher. My first few months as a Peace Corps volunteer and teacher in my village had a big learning curve. I spent a lot of time being frustrated, confused, angry and annoyed with the Lesotho education system and the teachers that I work with. I was also still grasping the cultural differences in learning and teaching here in Lesotho.

Although I still get frustrated, I have a better understanding of how things work here, with the limited resources available. I can go into a classroom and feel like some students understand me now. At first they would all sit there and give me a confused look. It took me a few weeks to slow my voice down so they can understand me. All schools are English medium, so I speak in English (Sehua) to my students but my accent is difficult for them to understand. I live in the remote mountains so my students only exposure to English is at school. Many of the teachers at my schools English is really poor, and often they resort to Sesotho. It's important for students to understand the concepts, but at the end of the year their only examination that "counts" is a multiple choice exam administered by the Ministry of Education and it's all in English. If they don't understand English, then they don't pass their exam.

I teach at several different schools. Here's a few "stats" on my schools & Lesotho Education System.

* My largest school is the Primary School that's only a 20 minute walk from my village, other schools are 1-2 hours away.

*At the primary schools I teach Classes 5,6 & 7. At the Secondary School I teach Form C.

*My classes sizes vary from 9 students - 76 students - depending on the school and class.

*In one of my classes at the primary school, the age range of my students is 11-24 years.

* 1 out of 5 schools has toilets (pit latrines) for the students

* All of my schools have a garden

* Most of my classrooms are cement block walls with corrugated tin roofs. I have a few classrooms that are mud & stone walls with tin or grass roofs.

* Teachers in Lesotho only have to graduate high school to work as a teacher

* Teachers make about 21,000 R ($3,000) a year

* It's estimated that 1/3 of school age children are not in school

* Many schools are controlled by churches - makes it difficult to teach Sex Ed / HIV life skills.

* Some of my students travel as far as 5 miles to come to school

* Only a few of my students from the Primary school will actually go to Secondary and less to High School.

* Many of my Primary School students drop out of school to get married (girls - ages 14+ & boys)

* All students are required to wear a uniform (but many can't afford it) They can come to school still, but sometimes get beat across the back of the legs or the tops of their hands for not wearing a uniform.

* Corporal Punishment is the preffered method of punishment of students.

Some days I get so frustrated with how things operate here. It's all part of being a Peace Corps Volunteer, I know no "big" changes will occur while I'm here, I'm in a developing country and I must be patient and work with what we have at the school. I'm doing my best to help the students have some fun, learn some important life skills. I also work with teachers on lesson plans and helping them do fun activities with students.

Change is slowly coming here, the education systems has faced a lot of challenges after the Primary education was changed to Free. Class sizes doubled in some schools and there isn't enough space or teachers to teach. Also, the impact of HIV & AIDS has impacted all sectors of this government, lack of teachers, many orphans etc. There are a lot of unexperienced teachers all over the country, trying to do the best they can. There are also some amazing teachers working in the schools that want to see change. There is hope, but it's slow in coming.

But, Like the Sesotho Proverb, Ho bea ditho ho hlahisa kgomo. (Patience is a virtue.)