To Be A Kenyan Student

I have been at site for three weeks now, I have started teaching, coaching and doing guidance and counseling at my school. I am still adjusting to some things, like the language barrier, but I am really enjoying getting to know the students and the other teachers! I also have a new address where I can get mail and packages! It is:

Christine Boyer PCV
C/o Bande Girls Secondary School
PO Box 55 – 40409
Muhuru Bay
Kenya

I wanted to give you some insight into what it’s like to be a secondary school student in Kenya, in many ways it is very different from being a high school student in the US, at least from my experience. First of all, secondary school is not free. Right now it is subsidized by the Kenyan government, but many families either cannot afford to send their kids to school, or really struggle to pay for school fees. Many secondary schools in Kenya are boarding schools, Bande Girls is almost totally boarding. Also, many schools are single-sex. The education system is 8-4-4 like in the US, 8 years of primary, 4 of secondary and 4 of university. (In Kenya grades 1-8 are called standard 1-8, while grades 9-12 are called Forms 1-4). But, unlike in the US, Kenyan students take national exams at the end of primary and secondary school. The KCPE is taken after finishing primary school and tests students over 8 years of information, and the KCSE is taken after finishing secondary school, and tests students over 4 years of information. Secondary school students take the KSCE in 8 subjects and are then given the option to drop one of the scores. The scores are then averaged and an overall grade is given. This grade more or less determines the rest of your life. Universities look solely at the KSCE score for admission, and employers ask for your KCSE score before offering employment. So, not only is there a lot of information covered on the exam, there is also an immense amount of pressure to do well. Students take 11 subjects in Forms 1 & 2 and 7-9 subjects in Forms 3 & 4. Students must take English, Kiswahili and math for all four years. In forms 1 and 2 all students must take chemistry, biology and physics, but can choose to drop one in forms 3 and 4. At my school students take Christian Religious Education (some schools also offer other religious studies), geography, agriculture, business studies and government in addition to the required language, math and science classes.

At Bande Girls School the students wear uniforms, which consist of a dark blue skirt, white button down shirt, a blue tie and optional red sweaters (right now most of the girls are wearing their sweaters to class since they think it is cold… I on the other hand think it is very very hot.) Secondary school students in Kenya are also required to shave their heads, so all of the girls at my school have shaved heads. I’m sure there is more than one reason for this, one, it prevents things like lice in schools, and it also creates equality among the students. The schedule of each day is probably the biggest difference. The following is the students daily schedule:

4am-4:30 – Waking up/personal cleaning/Dressing
4:30-6:30 – Dawn Preps
6:30-7:00 – Breakfast
7:00-8:00 – Remedial work
8:00 – 10:00 – Morning Classes
10:00-10:30 – Break
10:30-1:20 - Midday Classes
1:20-2:00 – Lunch
2:00-4:00 - Afternoon Classes
4:00-5:00 - Games/Guidance and Counseling/Clubs
5:00-6:00 – Personal cleaning
6:00-7:00 – Supper
7:00-10:00 - Evening Preps
10:00-10:15 – Lights out

Some variations are that on Mondays and Fridays the school has an assembly from 7:30-8 and the girls do manual labor around the school from 7-7:30 on those days. There are games (sports practice) after classes on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Sun. Guidance and Counseling is on Wednesdays and clubs/debate are on Fridays. On the weekends the schedule is the same from 4-7am, but on Saturday the students clean their dorms for inspection between 7-10, and on Sundays the students go to church at this time. The students are in class for preps and lessons from 10-2 with lunch in the middle, then the schedule is the same again from 4-10, with the only exception on Saturdays when the students have entertainment from 4-6. For the few day scholars at my school they are expected to be at school at 6:30am and leave school at 5pm, and they must come to preps and classes on the weekends between 10-4.

Preps are basically times when the students sit in their desks and are expected to be quietly studying, reading or completing homework. Some teachers make-up lessons during this time as well. The remedial hour is for teachers to teach lessons if they are behind in the syllabus, or if the last year’s syllabus was not completed. The Kenyan syllabus is HUGE and covers many many topics, and teachers often do not finish in the time allotted.

As you can see a huge difference is the amount of time that students spend in class. (Class times plus preps) They spend a lot more time “studying” then I probably did in high school, but with limited resources (5 text books for a class of 40, no outside reference material etc.) the time can sometimes be less productive. It can also be challenging as a teacher to assign different types of homework to encourage learning. There are not materials or resources for research projects or group projects, so we have to be creative! My school is very lucky to have a lab, many schools do not have a separate lab classroom, but many of the materials are lacking. The sinks in the lab don’t currently work, and neither do the gas lines and there are only 2 microscopes. But, we are lucky to have even that, and we do have many chemicals, so I count myself and my school as lucky!

I wrote last time that I would be teaching chemistry form 1, biology forms 1 and 2, plus life skills. I am still teaching those things, but since there is a shortage of chemistry teachers I will be teaching both form 1 streams. I am also teaching life skills to all of the forms, so now I have a total of 22 lessons a week (not counting lessons on the weekend or during the morning remedial work). More than the 16 we had agreed upon, but I think it will be ok. My days are very full, especially since my school is boarding! I wake up at 6 and am at school by 7. I teach throughout the day until 4, and then head to the volleyball “court” at 4 (The volleyball court is a patch of field that we slashed and then dug lines to mark the court, we then filled the lines with ash to make them stand out, and the poles for the net are big logs, not what I am used to playing on. Plus there is sometimes the added chore of chasing chickens, dogs, donkeys and cows off the court!). I am usually out there with the students until 6 when I head to my house to bathe, clean up and relax. I either make myself dinner or I eat with my principal who lives next door.

This week was fairly uneventful, but I did have a surprise visit from my bat friend, and found a scorpion on my front step one morning. The sunrises and sunsets are absolutely amazing here, and they help to start and end my day right! I’m going to try to post some pictures of the school, my house, the surrounding scenery and the sunset and sunrise on facebook! The address to get there is: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2045872&id=27501679&l=02d9df7ee7

I hope everyone is doing well back home! Love you all! Cheers!