Week Two – Professional

After my first week of teaching in Hollycross Basic School, I am entering the weekend with mixed emotion regarding the education system and schooling in Zambia. Before arriving in Livingstone, I had an image of what the teaching process would involve, however nothing could have prepared me for what I have observed and experienced in the last week alone.

On entering our school, it is clear to see that the budget they receive in very minimal and this becomes even more apparent in the classroom where the teachers are simply armed with one (tatty) text book for each subject, chalk and a blackboard. A stark contrast from Northern Irish classrooms! 

The curriculum within the school is based on a set of text books, which work the children toward an end of year exam. Due to this, the majority of teachers assume that the children must have all this information written out into their notebooks to learn. I am finding this very frustrating as the children spend more than half off a lesson writing, with very little learning taking place – as many children cannot read. During my planning, I am trying my best to develop creative lessons to encourage understanding and reduce the amount of mindless copying.

 A Mathematics lesson where the children are engaging with the greater than and less than symbols (Left). And an English lesson, in which the children wrote a letter to a pen pal in Northern Ireland (Right).

The above is not helped by the fact that the African culture of time keeping does not end at the school gates. Pupils and teachers are often late, leading to the limited lesson times (40 minutes per subject) being cut short or being left out altogether.

The schooling system is arranged into Grades, similar to the class grouping in Northern Ireland. However, the ages range in each Grade varies a great deal. In my Grade 6 class, the ages range from 9 to 14, resulting in a huge difference in their abilities. Meeting the need of individual difference is not a priority for teachers, as it would be in Northern Ireland, with the same work provided to all. I feel that this is an issue which needs to be addressed as many children are caught in a vicious circle, where they lack a basic understanding of concepts but are forced to move on to the next topic, even after receiving zero in summative assessments (the only method which is used). The results to these assessments are posted on the classroom wall for all to see, something I found highly shocking, as the children all compared and mocked each other’s scores.

The pupils in Hollycross Basic School have a huge amount of respect for their teachers: carrying the teachers’ bags, standing when they are answering a question and bowing when they are asking a question. Having said this, the children can be very disruptive in class and there is no school or classroom behavioural management policy to prevent this, individual teachers seem to decide upon their own punishment methods. After witnessing a number of these methods, Jenna and I decided in implement a simple table point reward chat, to encourage positive behaviours. Over the last week this has been very successful. Although, I am interested to see if the novelty will wear off in the coming weeks.

After the initial shock experienced in my first week of teaching and reflecting upon this in my blog, I am now looking forward to the professional challenges and opportunities I will have in the next five weeks, to make a difference to the children’s learning.

            My Grade six class from Hollycross Basic School.