PROJECT: Reflection, Third part

Due to the differences in ability among our students I felt that doing exercises [as a class] would be unfeasible (how could it benefit both E. and C. [from part 1] to do the same drill?), so early on we started instructing the class to split into individual reading groups, and had each group of three read books. Luckily the children enjoyed reading the same books over and over again (otherwise we wouldn't have had enough books in the beginning), which was great practice for them anyway. As I became more confident of their reading ability I added harder books until half of the class could spend time reading individually and half the class could read in groups of two. I also made an attempt to add a much harder book [one with no pictures in it], I tried to get E. to read it, but he lost interest. No one else ever wanted to take it either.

Teachers are lacking in the villages of Butre and Azani, class sizes are around twice the size of what we are used to in the west. It is difficult to induce teachers to stay in these outlying communities. Over the last 3 year period only one teacher has stayed in Butre, in Azani the situation is also difficult. Teaching is also done with the absence of textbooks (what I say applies to the primary-level in Butre and Azani, Sonja and I briefly toured some of the other schools in the region and the same seems to hold there as well).

Due to the absence of textbooks, teachers will copy part of a text to the board and then the students will copy it down into their notebooks and study it. They also do exercises just like we do in the west. It is a difficult system for both the teachers and the students.

In these difficult circumstances EHT and Humanitas assist the teachers and students in three ways: through the foster parent program, through the library, and through the volunteers. The goal is to support children through primary and secondary school to increase the chance that the children will go to college.

When we first came to Africa everything seemed so chaotic to me, from the streets of Accra to the development patterns of villages, to the free market anarchy that I suppose reigns in other African countries even more completely then it does in Ghana which is relatively rich. In Africa things seem to be more about relationships then about goals. Scheduling is impractical for a wide variety of reasons, but as a result people are much more flexible. Once, in the beginning, when I arrived to Butre late ER. asked me if she should go call the children back. I was still thinking in a western context so I thought: that's not going to work, what child would come back to school? How long would it take ER. to visit all the children. But later I learned that it was quite ordinary for such things to happen and that rounding up the children was quite efficient (one child gets two children, two children get four children, four children get eight children etc.). You don't really need to be so precise if you have a system like this, which relies completely on people. In 15 minutes many of them could already be reading. Everything is local here. Everyone walks. Everyone talks to their neighbors. It's different, you must be flexible and learn to sit quietly in the shade so you don't sweat too much and get too tired as you wait for your students to collect.

//Tomaz

Zaradi velikih razlik v znanju učencev se skupinske vaje niso izkazale za dovolj efektivne. Težko si je predstavljati, da bi enaka vaja učinkovala tako na E. kot na C. (glej First part). Zato sva kaj hitro učence razdelila na bralne skupinice po tri. Začeli smo z skromnim izborom otroških knjižic s temami iz afriške kulture. K sreči se niso naveličali branja enih in istih knjižic, kar je bila v vsakem primeru dobra vaja za njih. Sčasoma sva dodajala nove, težje knjižice, ki so omogočile polovici skupine individualno branje, ostali polovici pa branje v manjši skupinici po dva. Proti koncu najinega programa sem poskušal tudi s precej težjo knjigo, brez ilustracij. E. jo je sicer vzel v roke, a ga ni dovolj pritegnila da bi jo dokončal.

Tako v Azaniju kot v Butrah je velik manjk učiteljev, razredi so (pre)polni, v vsakem je približno dvojno število učencev glede na zahodne standarde. V odročnih vasicah, kot sta Butre in Azani, je učitelje težko privabiti, predvsem pa težko zadržati. Večinoma prihajajo za leto, dve, potem pa poiščejo boljšo priložnost drugje. Odročnost in neperspektivnost pa nista edini težavi s katerima se soočajo. Skupaj z večino ganskih učiteljev imajo izjemno omejene možnosti učnih metod, saj je tabla edini učni pripomoček, ki jim je na voljo. Učenci nimajo učbenikov, tako snov učitelji pišejo kar na tablo, otroci pa jo prepisujejo v zvezke.

V teh težkih razmerah je za otroke že srednješolska izobrazba dosežek, univerzitetna izobrazba pa skorajda nepredstavljiv cilj. Čim večje število teh otrok skušata Ebenezerjeva organizacija EHTN in slovensko društvo Humanitas pripeljati do univerze. Skozi osnovno in srednjo šolo jim nudita podporo preko treh programov: programa botrstva, knjižnjičnega projekta ter pomoči prostovoljcev.

Prvi vtis Afrike je bil kaotičnost. Kaos vsepovsod. Od ulic v Accri, organiziranosti (oz neorganiziranosti) vasi, do anarhije ekonomskega sistema prostega trga, ki v afriških državah dominira. Posledica kaotičnosti in neoprijemljivosti sistema je izjemna fleksibilnost ljudi, na kar sva se prav tako morala privajati. V začetnih tednih se je primerilo, da sva zamudila v Butre. Šolsko dvorišče je bilo prazno, pričakala naju je ena od učenk. Hitro se je ponudila, da pokliče ostale. Takrat sem razmišljal še “zahodno” in se mi je zdelo nerealno, da bi učenci, ko so enkrat že doma, prišli nazaj. Takrat še nisem razumel, da to za njih ni nič nenavadnega, in da, presenetljivo, tak način zelo dobro funkcionira.

Sčasoma sva tudi midva opuščala svoje zahodne navade in postala bolj fleksibilna. Ko sva čakala in čakala učence, sva mirno, neobremenjeno, v tišini sedela v senci in potrpežljivo čakala začetek šolske ure.