The Tail That Wagged The Dog

Modern Tanzania is a political headache. Its politics resonate with a diversely rich history emerging from deep cultural traditions and the direct impact of years of colonisation. It is fascinating, living here in Tanzania, to see the other side of the picture and to hear the other side of the story of the impact of colonisation and the reality of a regained independence for this country.

Following Tanzania’s independence in 1961, the country started working towards a socialist model of economic development: every man working together as a team for the development of the country. The previous President – Julius Nyerere – was a strong communist, leading the country out of colonial rule and through the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles that swept across the continent. When he relinquished his power, he left a country unsecure in its politics, unstable in its present and uncertain in its future. There is tremendous growth that has taken place in Tanzania over the past few decades, but as a country it remains deeply divided between where it wants to be and where it actually is.

Why am I suddenly ranting about the fractious political status of the country in a slightly naïve and one-sided manner? No, it’s not to annoy all my History teacher friends reading this, chastising me for not properly considering all of the relevant source material and for making rash statements about things I don’t quite understand. It is because I am currently living in a microcosm of socialism at its worst. Things have happened over the past few weeks at St Jude’s that have brought to light niggling doubts that I’ve had ever since I started working here, and that have left uncertainty and instability in my role here and that of many others. To be continued in a mo.

Flicking through a text book for A-level History the other day (the Tanzanian A-level curriculum that is), I was struck by how different a history is told this side of the ocean. Reading about Africa in WW1 unearthed an entire factual database of stories that I have never heard told before. Literature studied here ranges from staunch English classics by Charles Dickens and pals to books such as “The Mzungu boy” (The White Boy) and endless stories of the other side of colonialism: for example missionaries encouraging locals to join Christianity and building endless schools and churches in the local mountains, but keeping them all for their own children, not those of the locals. There is a living clash of cultures existing here; a modern western psyche emerging from a past history that the roots of Arica cannot shake. This can be seen as both a good thing and a bad thing for the country. I am reading a book at the moment called ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, which tells the tale of how colonisation started a system of political and social development but left the country before it was fully established, resulting in a divergence between past and future. Looking at the wider picture of the country, Tanzania has so much development and positive direction, yet is still shrouded by desperate poverty. I discovered a picture recently that enlightens this diversity within the whole of Africa: hope mingled with despair.

The clash of this nation’s social history brings constant conflicts of interest in all areas of life. This clash has been brought to light at St Jude’s over these past few weeks. Last week, an emergency meeting was called between the Headmaster, the senior leaders and the Heads of Departments in which they made a “group” decision to force my boss, Jane, to leave the school (either they all quit, or she goes kinda thing). Naturally shocked by this, discussions and questions unearthed a much bigger problem than the local staff simply not liking one person. It seems that a system has been imposed upon the running of the school that is not, perhaps, liked or wanted by those actually doing the running.

In brief, the aim of the school is:

“…to take disadvantaged students from the Arusha region and produce graduates who are high academic achievers, capable of creative thinking, with high moral values and who will be leaders in their community and in the country as a whole”. 

On the surface this sounds fab. Take 1600 plus students (2000 in two years time) from the depths of poverty and give them a chance at a life of opportunity, emotional and intellectual excellence and hope.  And that is indeed what the school is doing.  But the aim is flawed. The school is currently ranked 2^nd best school in the East Africa region of Tanzania – a huge achievement. In the very near future, it aims to be 1^st, not just in the region, but in the entire country.

And it can be. And hopefully will be. The school gets excellent results at all National exams. Because the local teachers drill the kids with reams of factual learning in their classes, the kids work themselves into the ground in their study and the rote system of learning builds a success for passing these exams.

But here’s the rub – the school also aims to develop the children as rounded individuals; working to enrich the curriculum to develop social skills, extra curricular opportunities, leadership skills, community service etc. But its aims are not happening.

Jane was “removed” from the job because the staff did not like being told to do things they have not done before and don’t really want to do. Jane is/was the mouthpiece of the International Board who indirectly runs the school (alongside the Local board). They are, for all intents and purposes, the tail that wags the dog. But they are nowhere to be seen; most of them having never been here and seen the reality of a Tanzanian education. They are pushing for an enriched curriculum; developing the students in a broader sense than just academia. But the parents and local board are pushing for academic excellence, in order to push the school to the top of the league. There is no room in its present structure for both but, it seems, the school has been muddling along, pretending it is possible and pretending it is somehow achieving both for years.

Oh dear.

When this charity school was started, it was started by one person, with one teacher, three kids and a shack on a bit of a muddy field. The origins could never predict the tremendous growth of the place and the possibilities that have come from its birth. Because everything had to be built from scratch, the quality of education was not given much thought in the early days; it was more about building classrooms, hiring teachers, getting resources and finding sponsorship and donations.

None of the original management were educators; simply strong hearted people wanting to start a charity to fight poverty through education.  But there exists the reasons for today’s rumblings.  The first Academic Head (aka Jane) was appointed only two years ago to push forward the aims of the school (e.g. this enrichment of teaching and learning). That’s great. But it’s not something that can happen overnight. And, by the looks of it, not something that can be imposed from within. But the board want it to happen now, now, now – strategic goals are being implemented for the next ten years, and this stuff is being seen as done and dusted already. Little do they want to realise that the dust is only just being cleaned off the top.

There are many problems that I can see coming out of this:

1. The aims are conflicting and cannot both happen at the same time…yet – it will take many years of teacher training and staff development to allow teachers to teach the Tanzanian curriculum in a creative, student centred manner.

2. There is no room for enrichment. The timetable is jam-packed, and in the “after school slots”, extra-curricular activities are daily dropped so that teachers put on extra classes to push more memorisation into the kids.

3. The ethos of the school does not promote enrichment. Kids get up at 5am every day (I kid you not) and do an hour of study before breakfast, followed by chores (they clean the classrooms), a day of learning at school, dinner, then three more hours of study.

4. It is a Western concept of education that has been imposed upon a Tanzanian curriculum. The two do not naturally slot together.

5. This enrichment aim has been imposed on Tanzanian staff by Westerners who are not educators and who are not here on the ground to see the conflict of interest in such a broad aim for the school.

Is this in fact a microcosm of colonisation happening all over again? No, that’s too extreme, but it is certainly a case of a clash of cultures and expertise. The Tanzanian teachers get excellent results teaching with rote learning methods and lecture style teaching, because that is what is required of the students in the exams. The government exams require regurgitation of facts and no independent thinking. It is, therefore, perfectly understandable to see why many staff resist the concept of an enriched curriculum. They have not been educated in that way, and they have done ok. Why bother?

Well, in my opinion, there are 1001 reasons to bother; and in reality the local teachers can and do see the merit. Doing recent professional development with the teachers on creative teaching, group work, and independent inquiry reveals how interested they all are in learning to teach using these techniques. But there is simply no room for the “extra” right now in the curriculum.

The school needs to really think about its direction – does it want to be an academically excellent school: the best in Tanzania? Great, then it can do that. And it can do that whilst giving kids who would, in all likelihood, never make it through school a chance to be educated in an incredible school with amazing facilities and a promise of a chance to graduate Form 6 and get to university.

Or does it want to be a school that enriches students with a rounded curriculum? Great, then it can do that. But it has to realise that it will take more work, take more time from the teachers, require longer hours and more commitment from staff who are only on a slightly higher wage here than they would be getting in a government school.

These questions and this dilemma was ultimately put on the table last week when Jane was removed. The “mob” action unearthed underlying resentment and concern about a school whose aims conflict, thus it is now time to make those decisions. But here brings me back to my opening gambit. The democracy of the country and the infuriating (I hate to say it but it is true in this case) socialist systems of everyone having a say but no-one making a decision. For the past ten days, these questions have been going round and round. The headmasters do not want to make a decision, and so pass it to the local board. They say they cannot make a decision without the western board involved. The western board come and say that the decision has to come from the staff on the ground as much as them. The staff on the ground say that they have to get the local board to assist. The local board say…And so we go around and around and around and start to wish that Florence, Dougal and Zebedee would at least get on board to bring a bit of magic onto this infuriating roundabout ride.

And where do I fit into this whole shebang? Well, without being too bitter, I feel I’ve been sold a dud. The original job spec advertising the role for what I am doing was hardcore (considering it is a voluntary position): 10 years classroom teaching experience, previous experience working as a HoD or leader, experience with curriculum writing, development and implementation and a whole heap of other skills required. When I came here, I thought I was coming into a firmly established system, a mentoring role that had been successful in the past, was fully supported by the school and something that was proving a success.

Reality on the ground is, at present, that the teacher mentors are all waiting to hear if there is still a job for us to do. I have come to help set up a Sixth Form – to enrich the students beyond the A-levels with university visits, lecture programmes, Life-skills, social enrichment, community service and much more. But if the school decides that it’s just academic excellence it wants, then none of that matters and the lovely Head of Sixth Form, Revocatus, can do a darn fine job without my help. To get into uni here, you simply send off your name and your mark in the Form 6 (U6) exams. I kid you not. So in the Tanzanian reality, none of it is important. (Obviously in the grand scheme of things, it all matters as the aim is to develop well rounded and independent individuals who have something big to offer to the world. But it doesn’t matter right now in the current Tanzanian education system).

And so I wait. For more meetings to happen; for more decisions to be passed around the table swifter than a sparkly parcel at a birthday party. Nothing will change until someone steps up and makes a decision, but I fear that will not happen anytime soon. The tail of this ol’ dog is temporarily defunct it seems and the dog no longer knows how to wag.

So, what do I do in the meantime, whilst all of these significant decisions are not being made? I go to Kenya. Road-trip number two! My arm is not getting any better and (as I’ve now discovered) there is no-one in the entire country of Tanzania trained to treat Lymphodoema, so I am back on the bus to Nairobi on Tuesday morning to meet once again with Dr Ron. Here’s hoping he can give me some good, practical advice and/or a bit of physio, otherwise I may have to make a flying visit back to the NHS for some help. Ho hum.

This blog is rubbish in many ways; apologies if you’re still with me and have managed to battle your way through to the end. It is shrouded with uncertainty and disappointment (as I’m sure come through) and ultimately frustration. I’ve come over here to do something useful, and if I am not needed here, then I would hate for people to be pretending that my role is something the school wants when they actually don’t. I am perfectly happy with that decision if it is made; I just need a decision, so that I can either re-think what I am doing here and find another charity to work with, or get my teeth stuck into a job that everybody believes in and that is seen by those on the ground as useful and necessary. I’ll keep you posted.

And finally…let’s end with something cheery, in manner of Newsround who always used to end their daily ten minute broadcast with a happier tale from around the globe. On Friday night I went to listen to a talk given by a young Tanzanian, Lelo Munis, entitled “From Chile to Kili”. It was a fascinating talk about his journey around the world on a bicycle. Born in the foothills of Kilimanjaro, he grew up in love with nature, conscious of man’s destructive power over conservation and with a strong desire to do something about it. He came from an impoverished background, brought up by his grandmother, and had a minimal standard of school education.  But he had ambition outside of the box.  Long story short (read the website for more: www.chiletokili.com) he taught himself to a striking level of education, built a bike, got a passport and started cycling. Over the years, the journeys grew longer, the ambitions grew stronger and, a couple of years ago, Chile to Kili was born. His aim? To cycle 28000 miles across 47 countries on a bicycle to raise enough money to enable himself to go to university to study Biodiversity and Conservation, and to fund ten young Tanzanian students to gain places alongside him.

I was incredibly excited to meet Lelo, for many reasons. Firstly he is doing something that is not necessarily understood in his country, yet he doesn’t care. (When I asked him how supportive Tanzania as a whole has been to his venture ie. has he been given publicity, support, funding, he said that a few newspapers let him put an article in but he had to pay!) Secondly he is doing something that he believes in, and that will get him (hopefully) what he wants – a chance to go to university. Thirdly, in the spirit of altruism, he is giving something back to his community and his country by offering others the chance to study too. What a great guy.

I have asked him to come to St Jude’s to talk to the new sixth form - to inspire them; not necessarily to strive to gain the university place, but more to see what one man can achieve and how powerful it is to stand out from the crowd. He is doing something that is not necessarily recognised as being significant by others in his country.  I have also decided to support him financially, offering some of the donations that you have all contributed to me over the year: a cause well worthy of our help I feel. Thank you to you all, from myself and from Lelo.

So there: a cheery end to a long, tangled and frustrated ramble! I did put a few pictures in now and then, just to brighten the mood; not been taking many photographs of late, but will be sure to get snapping when I’m in Nairobi this time – hopefully I’ll get to see more than just the inside of a hospital this time.

Being an English teacher who constantly goes on about the best way to construct writing, I always like to end my posts with some sort of conclusion or rounding thought returning to my opening. I am really struggling today, simply because the conclusion is not mine to make. The action surrounding it is, but it is not quite time for my action yet. So I will simply end with a lovely thing that I was told today: the Kiswahili meaning of my name, Rachel. It literally translates as “Good wishes on all you meet”. And I do have many of those for all I meet. And so I will end by sending them to all of you who have managed to read all the way to the end…!