Teaching

So after four weeks I realized that I've never actually written about the teaching I'm doing. That's probably important to mention right? I think I've mentioned some of these things before but I can't remember what I've told to whom so I guess some of you can just skip those parts.

• I teach two classes, P5 math and P6 English. P5 has about 50 kids and P6 has about thirty. Math is waaay easier because I've never been formally educated in the english language so it's hard for me to explain the rules. I just kind of know what's right and wrong (sometimes). For example how many of you actually know what the past participle is? Because I had no idea until last week when I had to teach kids how to use it.
• It's pretty evident doesn't really need me as a teacher. They kind of just tolerate me. I'm not even here for a full term and they already have teachers who could be teaching in my time slots. I'm basically just giving these teachers an excuse to read the newspaper. This is most likely why I only teach on academic class a day.
• I also teach PE a couple of times a day. Sometimes it's kind of tough because I only teach PE to the younger kids who can't really understand me. Luckily all I have to do is throw out a football and they know what to do. Although football can be tough when you're playing with 80 kids at a time. 40 on 40 first grade football is a sight to see. It's the world's largest scrum of children chasing a ball back and forth across the field.
• The Ugandan education system is one of the most ineffective systems I can imagine. The only grades the kids receive are on their state run final exams at the end of the year. They don't get marks on homework or tests or quizzes before that. This is probably my biggest frustration. It means that kids have no immediate incentive to try on their homework. So most of them sort of just wing it and as long as they've turned in something they're not too bothered. The only kids this system works with are diligent kids with enough foresight to realize the value of routine practice and studying who choose to work hard for their own sake instead of playing football. You've all met plenty of elementary school kids like that right? To give you an example, once I assigned two standard multiplication problems to my 50 P5 students. Only five of them got both problems correct.
  
• There are almost no books here. For each subject I teach there is only one book and I have it. This basically means that I copy the notes down on the book for half the class. The rest of class I just go over examples with he kids and let them try some problems.
• The easiest way I can think of to improve education at this school would be to buy English books. Since everything is taught in English I feel like improving kids' understanding of English would help them understand the material better in every class. After asking around I found out that English textbooks cost around five bucks (10,000 shillings). With 400 kids, that means I could buy every student an English textbook for $2,000...
• Since I only have one academic class a day and a few PE classes, that means I'm only in class for at most two hours a day. But I usually try to stay until around 5 so I can play football with the kids after school. This adds up to a lot of time sitting around. at break and lunch I usually either play football or shoot the shit with the kids but when they're in class I can't really do that. And the teachers all talk to each other in Lusoga which I have no hope of understanding so I spend a lot of time sitting around and reading books. Like I mean a lot of time. So far I've read thirteen books.
  

I could spend pages and pages ranting about the issues with the Education system here but that would probably bore most of you. If any of you are curious feel free to ask me in person and I'll tell you all about it. Otherwise this should give you a slightly better picture of what I'm doing.

P.S. If there are any wealthy donors reading this who would like to save me the hassle of guilt tripping you into donating money, please feel free to just cut me a check and give some of these kids a shot at life beyond subsistence farming.