One Day at a Time: Meh ya kamo.

That’s “I’m a teacher” in Gola, which is the local language I’m learning. Never have I been more appreciative of the hard work and preparation my educators had to do to ensure my peers and I received a good quality education. Teaching requires a lot of planning, trial and error, energy, and creativity. I’m usually emotionally exhausted by the end of a school day and ready for bed around 8 pm.

The past 2 weeks I had been teaching 9^th graders at Lango Lippaye (“Lango Lippie”) High School. The school is a convenient 30 second walk from my home stay and has both junior and senior high (grades 7-12) students. The students got to attend this vacation school for them to get a head-start on the upcoming year, and we, the Trainees, were able to get a feel for teaching in a Liberian classroom. Having this opportunity was incredibly helpful! We were able to experiment; we got to see what techniques work and what didn’t. We also received feedback from other PCTs, experienced PCVs, and host country staff technical trainers. This feedback was key to improvement, and I know we all have improved from day one back on July 2^nd.

On the last day of Model School, last Friday (the 13^th), I gave my students a cumulative test on the topics we’ve learned in General Science class: the respiratory, circulatory, and skeletal systems. While I was initially feeling a little insecure about teaching anatomical and physiological concepts, it was actually fun reviewing the systems and planning my lessons. While my interests lie in all things environmental, I enjoyed attempting to make each lesson contain an interactive and interesting activity so that the content would stick in their minds. And I’d say for the most part, I was successful based on the stats:

-of the 40+ enrolled, 23 were present on day #1 (7 female, 16 male)

-of the 50+ enrolled towards the end, 34 were present on day #10-exams day (11 female, 23 male)

-30 students attended class consistently

-final exam score range: 45-105% (submitted: 50-100%...explained below)

-overall score range: 39-95% (submitted: 50-95%...also explained below)

I’m not measuring success here only by the amount of passes vs. fails. I like to know the numbers, but I assess success based on how engaged my students were in the class, how much they enjoyed it, how much I believe they will retain the information, and lastly, how much their overall academic practices improved (i.e., study and test-taking skills). I’m not going to change the world serving as a PCV over here; it’s simply impossible. But if I can help a handful of students “succeed”, then my time spent here will have been worth it.

Some students found my final exam, and my class in general, to be challenging, while others found it easy and a bit of a review. This is pretty representative of the broad range of prior knowledge students in the same classroom can have. (In some cases, students in 12^th grade are still illiterate!) Also, there is a great gap in the ages of students. My 9^th graders (typically 14-15 years old in the States) were between 12 and 18. And that’s not even a bad disparity; in the bush, where most of us will be teaching, we will have grandparents as our students. The years of war really demolished the education sector here and many people struggle to work, take care of their families, and attend school off-and-on for sometimes decades.

In order to keep older students moving on through the system, to eventually minimize the age disparities in classes, and to reduce class sizes (currently can have up to 150 students), the Ministry of Education (MOE) has established certain grading standards. Basically, there are no letter grades and there’s no such thing as a GPA figure. If a student scores lower than a 70% in a specific class, they fail. If they score lower than a 50%, the actual score is insignificant, and they are automatically given a 50%. A student is able to move on to the next grade level only if their grade average from all of their classes is 70% or higher. So for the students that got 45% in my class overall, I had to record on my gradesheet that they earned a 50%. That way, a student that fails general science but passes everything else can move on to the next grade. This, in the eyes of the MOE, helps advance students through the system. Also, for the students that earned over 100% on my test, with bonus points included, I could only record a 100% on my gradesheet. The bonus points would come into play with their overall final average with all their classes if they were borderline 69-70%.

We’ve had many presentations and open discussions, both with PC Staff and Liberian educators, about this grading system, and while it’s different from our own, we’re not here to change it. We just have to be understanding of it and do the best we can. Initially I wasn’t too fond of this system, viewing it as grade-fudging, and there is so much more I could say about this, but I think instead I’ll move on to some more info. about my experience in Model School and the Liberian education system in general.

I experienced many emotions during Model School. Sometimes I left my 45 minute 2^nd period class feeling triumphant and other times I felt defeated. At times I was excited to plan the next lesson and in other instances, I was ready to cry. But overall, that’s life. There are always going to be ups and downs, but I’m looking forward to my 2 years of teaching in Gbarma (pronounced “Bama”), Gbarpolu (“Bapolu”) County. I’ll be living and teaching there with my roommate Rachel S. (from Ohio, teaching English) and we’ll be the first PCVs at that site. It will be both nice and challenging being the first Americans there: nice because we won’t have to live up to expectations of previous Volunteers and challenging because the community won’t know what the role of a PCV is and may expect us to simply give hangouts like all the NGOs (which we don’t). We’ll just have to see what happens!

As far as the school schedule, there are 2 semesters, each containing 3 grading periods, so 6 total. PC is only in government schools at this point, and students in secondary high schools (grades 10-12) must pay to attend school. All 9^th and 12^th graders must take a test called the West African Examinations Council (WAEC). The WAEC is similar to the ACT or SAT that American students take in order to attend university but here, seniors must pass it to graduate. There are 9 subject areas on the WAEC and students must pass 6, including math and English. The test questions are mostly generated by teachers from Monrovia, where the schools are exponentially better, and therefore, the questions are ridiculously difficult. What’s more, the test is only given in Liberia, so if a student wanted to attend university in another W. African country, their score would be useless. (Can you tell I’m not too fond of the WAEC?) Even if the WAEC made sense to administer, many students are so desperate to finally get their high school certificate that they are willing/forced to pay a “flexibility fee”, which is essentially a bribe. While corruption and bribery is condemned outright by the MOE, it still happens (more so in the upcountry schools, where PCVs serve).

Two major things that differentiate American teachers from Liberian teachers (and this is just a generalization, not an absolute) is that we: 1.) don’t accept bribes from students and 2.) don’t tolerate spying (cheating). I had some issues with attempted spying in my class during Model School but if you eliminate the potential to spy and enforce your rules/consequences, then it’s drastically minimized (but never eliminated).

Wrapping up this post, my students sang “Happy Birthday” to me on Mon. the 9^th, and we had a great MS Closing Ceremony on Sat. the 14^th. Speeches were made and students sang, performed skits, and received certificates for completing the 2 weeks. The top student from each grade will also get a new uniform for the upcoming year, and the top male and female 12^th grade students will get their WAEC fees paid for by PC. Overall, it was a great experience, and I’m glad I survived Model School. Today we are having a workshop with our Principal and tomorrow we will go visit our site (explore the community and school) for a few days. I now feel a little more at ease (and excited!) to teach in Gbarma for the next 2 years! Meh yaa koyeh kaafeh! (I’m going to teach!)