The Nomad Walks Again

There have been many musings in the Musson mind of late. Not only have I been re-thinking my plans out here, but I’ve spent much time re-evaluating my feelings about the concept of educational charity work and the most effective approach to take. Conclusions have, this week, been reached and there are ch-ch-ch-changes approaching.

The first resolution that I have made is to leave St Jude’s. I have found out many things over the past three weeks that have really changed the way I view the charity and the people in charge. Don’t get me wrong, the reality of what this school is doing remains the same and the chance that it is giving these few thousand children of an education is as remarkable as ever. That brilliance and empowerment remains. But what have been stripped away, for me, are the moral workings behind this, the direction of the school and the approaches that have been made in the past by the charity directors.  I won’t go into all of the shenanigans in too much detail; mainly because they have been agitating my mind for long enough now and it is time to move on from the mental angst. But a summation of findings is indeed in order, for a clarification of just why I am abandoning ship in such a seemingly heartless manner. Allow me to explain…

When I applied for a voluntary position here, I was excited. The work of the charity sounded incredible, the concept remarkable and the role advertised seemed a real challenge. All that I read about St Jude’s before coming made it sound as though the education here had taken real steps beyond the conventions of a government education and was really enriching the curriculum in exciting ways for the teachers and the children. The proposals that I was bringing in for the Sixth Form were in line with this level of enrichment; putting in place Life-skills, university visits, lectures and visiting speakers, community service, mentoring etc. It was presented to me by the western management as a desired product, just lacking the experience and knowledge of an implementer. However, what I have discovered over the past few weeks changes things.

Firstly, I have discovered that lovely Revocatus, the Head of Sixth Form, was not told that I was coming, was not given any input into what direction the Sixth Form would take and was not even asked if he needed a Mentor. Neither was the Headmaster – he has not been involved (it appears) in the recruitment, or decision making involving any of the mentor roles here.  Secondly, having spent time speaking at length to the Head, the deputies and the Heads of Departments, I have discovered that the majority of the staff on the ground really resent the mentoring programme and the way it has been run over the past few years since it began. Not only because they have had no say about who gets a mentor or why, they also find many elements of the process patronising and undermining. They are all professionals in their own right; they have lived through a Tanzanian education and know it inside out: what right has a Mzungu got to come into a system that they don’t know or understand and start meddling? Mighty fair point, I’d say.

The third thing that has arisen from all of the recent happenings is the fact that the teachers on the ground are battling constantly with the concept of educational enrichment. It is, currently, a western concept of education and not something that exists within the education system here. The hostility arises, not necessarily because the teachers don’t want it, or don’t see a need or benefit (that is certainly not the case; they can most certainly see the additions and benefits that can be applied to standard education). The problem lies with the fact that there is no room for it. The current Tanzanian Curriculum (an old British Curriculum from the 1950s) is vast, is all centred on factual knowledge and rote learning, and takes a long time to teach. There is no room in the classroom for creative teaching, student centred learning and interaction: firstly because it takes away from teaching time, and secondly because (at the end of the day) it is not what is being examined. The kids just need to regurgitate facts, facts and more facts. Understanding how to apply them to the real world and where they can take you is simply not important on this current educational train; the only thing that matters is picking up the knowledge en-route to the final exam. The problem lies in the fact that the Western Board that runs St Jude’s are demanding rapid rates of development within the school’s teaching; wanting to see results from the enrichment and see them fast. These things take time, take trust, and cannot be seen with immediate effect. It is utterly remiss and shameful that this collection of folk in Australia place demands upon the educators here within the school when none of them are educators themselves and none of them have any direct understanding of the Tanzanian education system.

The simple fact of the matter is this: the school’s aim is to be the best school in Tanzania. Truly remarkable and exciting in its aim, considering the fact that ten years ago the school was a banana field. And guess what? In the Form Four National Examinations (results out last week) it scored seventh in the entire country.  These are GCSE equivalents. The seventh best government school in Tanzania: pretty remarkable, huh?! And how has the school gained this ranking? Not through enriched teaching, extra-curricular exams and community service, oh no, through jam-packed lecture style lessons and very hard working students.  

That is how schools out here are judged and that is what the teachers know, the parents want, and society understands as success. There is no ranking or leader-board for all of this “extra” enrichment; it is superfluous to the way that Tanzanians currently view educational success. Were the school now to drop down to be, say, the 75^th best school in the country for examination success, but the best school for producing creative thinkers, public speakers, empowered and creative students, it would be seen as a failure in the eyes of society. The only thing that matters in the current climate is educational success – and the curriculum does not need or require the extras that shape young minds.

A good friend of mine wrote to me the other day discussing education. She said, I quote, "When we compare wistfully to what goes on in schools we've both know in the UK, I guess we have to remember how far the British Education system has come and how it's taken a very long time, a National Curriculum, the abolition of several major exam systems and many governments to get where it is today- and it is still failing thousands of students in many parts of the country.  There just isn't ever going to be a one size fits all model and until these students in Tanzania are judged on more than their national exam results, these soft skills that we know to be so important and essential just won't be valued." A wise woman, is Jo. I've had many discussions of late of the value of educational charity work and of the underlying problems that come with them.  However you look at it, we, as westerners, are imposing our systems onto a country under the mildly (albeit subconscious) arrogant view that they are better. We are forcing  our ideals onto a curriculum that has no space or them and are assuming that everyone will naturally want to follow this same route.  Who knows, eventually maybe they will, but they need to want to go down that route. It is one thing to model an education system but a very different thing to impose it upon a country or community that, as it stands, is just not  yet ready.

There are, however, flaws that the government need to address. In these recent Form Four National examinations, 60% of the entire country gained zero marks. Thus two thirds of the country failed. People higher up surely must address the symptoms of such a situation when you have worrying results like that. There are now all of these sixth form places at schools across the country sitting empty as children have not gained the results needed to gain entry. Only 6% of the country got a Division 1 pass (the equivalent of a good grade) and a total of 240,903 students (out of the 397,126 students who sat the Form Four exams) failed.

So, where does that leave my thinking? Well, for a start, saddened once again at the fact that the educational system is in many ways limiting those at its heart. The system is letting them down and yet they are all locked into the system. The kids here at St Jude’s are doing something remarkable as they are in that top percentage that passed. 19 students here got a Division One grade, and none of them got zero. However, many got Division Three and Division Four, and the management have decided (again to their shame) that they are not going to let them come back to school next week and start Form Five. Despite the fact that, when this project started ten years ago, these children were amongst the first students to arrive and were promised that they would graduate Form Six, they are being now asked to leave. The children that remain here are not being equipped to leave school and head out into the world as confident young minds (as the charity so boldly declares that they are). They are being equipped to leave school and head out into the world as very factually knowledgeable Doctors or Lawyers or Accountants.  

This achievement is tremendously exciting. However, they take with them no self-confidence, a lacking in creative thinking, limited interactive people skills and holding very few life skills. Is it a good thing, then, that this school is removing the children from their communities and social education and pushing them down an academic route in a very western-looking environment instead?

This is what my mind has been battling over these past few weeks. Yes, in many ways, it is a remarkable thing that these children are being taken from lives of intense poverty, being pushed through a government school with remarkable facilities, dedicated teachers, given three meals a day and a safe place to sleep. They are being given examination success, National Examination certificates and (hopefully) University places. They will go on to gain employment in the country and comfort in their own lives. Yes, that is truly wonderful. But, on the flip side, they will leave behind their family, their community, their home.  Studying at university to be a doctor is a long way from herding goats across the Serengeti.  There is no place for a lawyer in a Massai village. There is no need for an Accountant in a mud-hut community. There is no role for a Doctor on a hillside plain with no medical facilities. Or rather, there is a need if these students can reverse the directions that school’s ambition is sending them: set up a medical practice back in their village; work with the village elders to share their knowledge on human rights, return home to teach about economy and financing. Maybe, hopefully, some of these students will return to their communities one day and do just that: truly fight poverty through education for their whole community as well as themselves. Maybe, just maybe. 

I visited another school this week (St Jude’s being closed for half term). Orkeeswa School is up in the mountains of Monduli; a charity that has set up a small government school  for the local community.

Its aim is to teach an enriched curriculum to the local Maasai children and to provide them with opportunities beyond a traditional Tanzanian education.

In their model, they teach the Tanzanian curriculum from 8.15am until 2.15pm, and then have two hours each day of extra-curricular activities; from gardening to agriculture to baking to sport and public speaking. The children all live at home, many walking an hour and a half to school each day. They are thus fully integrated in their local community as well as within the school. The young lad, Joseph, that showed me around the school told me tales of his home, his family and the things he has learned at school. 

He took me on a tour of the school garden, the chicken house and the goat pen; the classrooms, the kitchen, the basketball court. He told me about what he has learned at school and what skills he has gained. He told me how useful many of the skills have been back at home, and how he has taught his younger brother many of those skills learned at school. He also showed me how the Maasai make their shoes (something I have long admired, as they make them out of car tyres- incredible!)

What I admired about the school was the headteacher, Robert. He spoke to me at length about the school and about their recent upset – that many of their Form Four students had sadly failed their National Examinations. When asked whether this made him re-think the model of the school, he said firmly that he was proud of Orkeeswa and the skills it was teaching the children, and would not compromise on that. A bold statement to make for a Tanzanian; as he will never be judged a success running a school that fails in the examinations. But they should indeed be proud of how much they achieve.  

It was fascinating to see another model of a charity school that is so very different from St Jude’s – the two couldn’t be more different. And the results are so different too. I leave you to your opinions on which charity model creates more success…

I will, however, share one of my favourite things about my visits to the school– when Joseph took me to look at the rather snazzy goat house, I asked where the little nibblers were.

He told me they wandered the school site freely during the day; often heading out down the hillside or down to the garden. We found them, ten minutes later, wandering out of the library. Love it!

Coming back to the here and now, the crux of the matter is that there is no role for enrichment in The School of St Jude at present and therefore no need for my work here. The aim of the school remains utterly muddled: two things being forced together, that don’t work harmoniously together. The teachers have spoken (through their swift removal of the Academic Head, who was leading the enrichment) to say that they don’t want that here right now. They want to focus on the traditional teaching they understand and know best (and that works) and they want to continue this drive to be the best school in Tanzania.  I will admit that I don’t like the way that the Western management here have forced a model onto a school without the consent, the desire and the understanding of its significance by the teachers on the ground. I don’t like the way that local staff here feel they do not have a voice in the school and simply have to do what they are told by the western management. I do not like the way that, in the midst of this current crisis, all of the western management have just backed away from the problem and said that someone else can fix it; the new CEO (who is starting in August) can deal with the problem; it’s not their fault; it was someone else pushing this system onto the school. I don’t like the fact that I now feel I have been introducing ideas to lovely Revocatus that, in reality, he probably doesn’t want and certainly doesn’t feel he needs. He may be saying yes, yes, yes to them all, but if some higher power is pushing this onto his head, then of course he’s going to agree.  I feel uncomfortable in my own skin and that makes me ashamed of what I represent.

So, what to do? Well, much of the work I’ve been doing since I arrived has been centred around creating and orchestrating a two week induction programme for the new Form Five (Lower Sixth) students who start back this Tuesday. This includes creation of a Guide to A-level Success manual, a Teambuilding afternoon, Study Skills sessions, Careers discussions and research, Life-skills lessons, a Leadership day, debating and public speaking lessons etc. All of these new concepts to the students, the teachers and the government’s education system of Tanzania. I have accepted the fact that the model I have been preparing will most likely not be repeated again next year. The academic systems I have been putting in place will, most likely, not be taken up for the duration. The doors I have opened forging links to the wider community will probably soon be closed.  However, it is too late now to halt the running of these next few weeks, and I would hope that the value of this two week enrichment programme will be a positive thing for these students. They will not, by the looks of it, get a chance to learn and experience any of these skills again at school and so we will continue with the programme. After that, I think my time here is done.

I am going to sit down once again with the Headteacher, Deputies and Revocutus and see if there is anything further they want me to help with; but I assume my end is nigh. I am not in any way bitter or upset by this; on the contrary to be honest, I feel uncomfortable that I have been suggesting so much that, underneath their smiles, they probably have not wanted. So certainly time to leave; to leave them to it, to do what works. The school do not need western educators to come in and show them how to be a success: they are doing that without us; the examination success proves as such. And until there is space, time, a desire and a need for educational enrichment here, the mentoring programme needs to be shut down. The majority of the other teacher-mentors here are all leaving at the end of term. The western management will then, hopefully, be forced to re-think their approach to running the education within this charity. Top down is a sad way to carve out what, on the surface, appears (to all who read about St Jude’s from afar) like a heartfelt, charitable concept but is, in fact, western domination once again.

What happens next remains in the pipeline at the moment, but I’ve a few meetings lined up this week and a few local visits to make to projects I’ve been in touch with for a while. I therefore hope, this time next week, to have made my plans and to know what I’m doing and where I’m going. On the move again it seems. But if those beautiful little elephants taught me anything last week, it is to always have your trunk packed, ready for the next challenge that lies just around the corner…