Teaching at last!

Despite the closure of schools for the summer holidays, Roz and I were give the opportunity to teach during tuition time in four Primary schools in Mbita: Usare Primary, Mbita Academy, Kisui Primary and Icipe Primary.

The main difference between the structure of schooling in Britain and Kenya is the length of time spent in Primary school. The Kenyan's 8.4.4 system means that children begin primary school at age 6 and finish at age 14 (if they have been able to pass each year with a mean score of at least 250/500). Luckily enough for us classes 6-8 are around the same age as key stage three students in UK secondary schools.

We experienced a real range of abilities from school to school. The pattern that has emerged is that students who attend private schools or state schools with a strong sense of discipline and focused learning are much more astute than those that attend other government run schools. It was a real pleasure teaching students who were so eager to learn and even the livelier students in the slightly weaker schools were engaged.

How refreshing it was to see students taking pride over their exercise books with not a mark of graffiti. There was still a lack of pens but not from laziness, much more due to the fact that one pen costs 8 pence here which is extremely expensive when you take into account that a parent's wage may be just one pound fifty a day! Also there is the grave fact that in Kenya, without a high standard of KCSE results (Kenya's GCSEs), there is very little chance of bettering yourself.

Every student we taught, whether it was in a class of 15 or 52, had a very good grasp of the English language, despite it being the third language they learn. We were extremely impressed with their understanding of grammar and the range of vocabulary they used in their written work which often put their English counterparts to shame.