One of the topics that has come up over the last few days of teaching and observing has been class size: with the exception of the science track in lycee, most classes are 40 or more students…and far more in the elementary school. This is partially due to compulsory school attendance in the early grades, which leads to more students staying in school if they pass their elementary exams (then yearly exams in middle school and lycee).
Unlike the US, the problem isn’t a teacher shortage; Senegal trains hundreds of new teachers each year as teaching is seen as a reliable profession. The problem is a classroom shortage: in order for a school to request a new teacher from the national government, they have to have a classroom for them. (And the teacher is assigned to their post from the ministry of education). Building the classroom is the responsibility of the community. If the village or city can find the funds, I think they can do so, but frequently this is just not possible. Also, one of the teachers we met with said they were told they can only split the class (and therefore request another teacher) if there are 80 or more students in the class. So there are many people who train as teachers who are not working in education; quite the opposite problem as the US right now. And while all the Senegalese students we have seen have been extremely well-behaved in class, those numbers restrict a lot of education reforms, such as project-based learning and other student-centered instruction. Nevertheless, each day I am amazed at the professionalism of each teacher that I meet, and the eagerness of the students to learn and answer questions in class. We were treated to a play on the dangers of early marriage by a troisieme class (eighth grade) yesterday in a rural school. Their English was impressively good, as were their acting skills. The same school had some ancient computers that had been donated by an organization, but that no longer worked, so they sat in the unused computer room as there is no waste removal. They also had a well that had been built by World Vision that was no longer working (they had another manual one in the center of the school yard). And therein lies the difficulty in technology education: you need working equipment to train students in the technology they will use if they want to work in an office or profession. You need teachers who have been trained in technology to teach the class, and you need technicians in your community to fix machinery when they no longer work. The school had the teacher, but not the other two. Another school had a solar panel for use in the single computer in the principal’s office, and I think there are more solutions to be found in alternative energy. But it is clear that education and technical training will have to accompany any new initiatives.
1 Comment
Jennifer Nisevich
4/14/2016 10:06:45 am
One computer for an entire school administration? That is an eye opener.
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Kirstin Bullington
I teach science, engineering, and computer science at W.J. Keenan High School in Columbia, SC Archives
March 2016
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