I am working on preparing finals for the three classes trying to gauge which questions are too easy and too hard. I have gained a better understanding of the Tanzania educational systems being here, both for secondary school and university. Both have some common differences with education in the US.
They use standard percentages for grading and mastery expectation is low.
Tumaini's Standard for grading is:
A 80 - 100 %
B+ 70 - 79 %
B 60 - 69 %
C 50 - 59 %
D 40 - 49 %
E 0 - 39 %
The catalog says that the instructor can do some adjustment based on the performance distribution for the class but the concept of using a curve is not common.
Students must pass with a C or better in all their courses to count for graduation. If students have a D or E they take a supplemental examination (a retake of a different or even the same final) in the next term where they have a second chance. If they pass the supplemental exam they will be awarded a C for the course, otherwise they will need to retake it. There is a lot of pressure here for both the university and the students because student loans must be repaid for failed courses and both the students and university are dependent on these loans.
Secondary Schools are evaluated with 2 week national examinations that occur after form II, after form IV, and after Form VI (Secondary school is 4 to 6 years after 7 years of primary). Form IV is called O-level for Ordinary level and many students leave at this point with a diploma. These graduates can go to teaching colleges and become primary school teachers. Other students continue with Form V and VI which is called A-level and can go from there to university. Passing grades for each subject in the exams is 30 % or better. All students take the mathematics exams and fewer than half will pass with this grade. They are allowed to have two failed subjects to continue in school, otherwise they have to repeat the last Form.
Passing at 30% seems like a pretty low threshold but this shows the disconnect between an ambitious syllabus and its implementation in Tanzania secondary schools. I have books of sample exam questions from past exams for Math and Chemistry and the mathematics exam is very difficult. I doubt that US HS students would do that much better, especially if we gave it to all students and not just the math and science students. Most Tanzanian secondary schools have a severe shortage of text books and teachers, especially teachers prepared to teach mathematics and science.
With few resources, students are dependent on what they hear from the instructor in the classroom. This continues at the University where they also do not have text books other than photocopied materials or some electronic materials that are subject to availability of computers. I think the shortage of resources limits their ability to learn independently, or at least causes them to not try to seek out ways to learn. They become accustomed to listening to the teacher and writing down what they say in their notebooks which become their text books and then memorizing this information for the examinations. At Tumaini they have about 20 - 22 hours of scheduled class each week which is almost double what we would have in the US so the time for work outside of class is much less. There are individuals who do go to the library and read and learn on their own and the divide between these students and the rest of the class keeps growing.
The University system is dependent on the government loan program that provides 40% - 100% of student tuition fees. Tumaini, as a private university, has relatively high tuition fees of about 2,000,000 tsh or about $1500. Government loans are interest free and will be repaid with a 5% salary deduction after the students graduate. Many students will become teachers in Secondary schools with salaries in the range of 150,000 to 500,000 per month or about $150 - $350 so the loans will be slow to be repaid. The other issue in Tanzania right now is expansion of the Government University in the capital city of Dodoma. It has grown in three years to 17,000 students and is headed to 40,000 - 45,000 students in the next couple years. This growth has consumed most of the government resources and caused severe competition for students and faculty. What impact this growth and the sustainability of the loan program will have on schools like Tumaini remain to be seen.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Hills above Tumaini
I have been meaning to hike up a near by peak since we moved up by Tumaini and finally did so. There was a very faint semblance of where someone had gone before but fortunately the brush was not too thick. The views were great.
Here is looking towards downtown Iringa, see the big white grain elevators in the distance, that is how far from downtown we are out at Tumaini.
Looking at the Tumaini campus, the construction is the new science building which will be multi story and is supposed to be ready a year from now.
Open country to the north of Iringa on the way to Mtera reservoir and hydroelectric dam.
On my way back through campus, I heard this loud buzzing noize and found a couple hundred guys (only saw one woman) watching the opening ceremonies for the World Cup match between South Africa and Mexico. Not exactly a wide screen TV but most will not have it at home. Last night we went to bed early and saw that England had scored against the US. As I was in bed, I heard a big roar from campus and guessed that the US had tied it up. Sure enough we tied England and the US is with the African countries, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon, as the favorite teams here. We see not only Obama stuff but a lot of american flags around.
Here is looking towards downtown Iringa, see the big white grain elevators in the distance, that is how far from downtown we are out at Tumaini.
Looking at the Tumaini campus, the construction is the new science building which will be multi story and is supposed to be ready a year from now.
Open country to the north of Iringa on the way to Mtera reservoir and hydroelectric dam.
On my way back through campus, I heard this loud buzzing noize and found a couple hundred guys (only saw one woman) watching the opening ceremonies for the World Cup match between South Africa and Mexico. Not exactly a wide screen TV but most will not have it at home. Last night we went to bed early and saw that England had scored against the US. As I was in bed, I heard a big roar from campus and guessed that the US had tied it up. Sure enough we tied England and the US is with the African countries, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon, as the favorite teams here. We see not only Obama stuff but a lot of american flags around.
Mama Miho's
We have been shopping at Mama Miho's grocery the past few months. Her store is away from downtown and has better prices and warmer customer service. Her store is like the others in town, packed to the ceiling with inventory, and we have found that we can get pretty much anything we are looking for. The only food item I would bring in the future would be spices, except for pepper and cinnamon in the market, we do not get penzies quality spices here. Most of the merchandise in the groceries comes from outside Tanzania, although they do have a good dairy here for milk and yogurt and a local cheese. I made spaghetti the other night with fresh tomatoes, green pepper, and onion from the market but the rest was spaghetti from Iran, tomato paste from Oman, dried basil packed in Kenya, olive oil from Spain, and cookies for dessert from South Africa. This is typical because the Tanzanian economy is so agriculture based. Fresh produce they do well and we have been having the best avocados I have ever seen, perfect texture and you can peel them like bananas.
Mama Miho, the helper in back doesn't realize his picture is being taken so he is smiling. The bag behind Mama Miho is ugali flour which we buy sometimes for Sele, our gardener. Notice how nicely the carton of eggs is packaged ready for the bumpy road back to our house.
Oops, he saw the camera. The Ceres cartons behind him are a wide assortment of fruit juices from South Africa which are very good. We like passion fruit best.
Woman selling rice cakes outside of Mama Miho's. She is smiling because when I asked if I could take a picture she said yes for elfu moja (1000 shillings). I said, will you smile for a 1000 shillings? The cakes are 150 shillings each and taste great but cannot be good for you. She is cooking over charcoal like most Tanzanians and said she would get a coke.
Mama Miho, the helper in back doesn't realize his picture is being taken so he is smiling. The bag behind Mama Miho is ugali flour which we buy sometimes for Sele, our gardener. Notice how nicely the carton of eggs is packaged ready for the bumpy road back to our house.
Oops, he saw the camera. The Ceres cartons behind him are a wide assortment of fruit juices from South Africa which are very good. We like passion fruit best.
Woman selling rice cakes outside of Mama Miho's. She is smiling because when I asked if I could take a picture she said yes for elfu moja (1000 shillings). I said, will you smile for a 1000 shillings? The cakes are 150 shillings each and taste great but cannot be good for you. She is cooking over charcoal like most Tanzanians and said she would get a coke.
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Madisi Visit
Dan had an extended break from Saturday, May 29 through Tuesday, June 1st. Because the travel time is so long, we decided to postpone our trip to Arusha to another time and go to Madisi instead. Bariki came with us. We left Iringa at about 11 am and arrived in Mafinga at about 12:15 or 12:30. We went over to the Rose Garden for lunch, a little café that Steve Vinton had recommended to us. Ordering was a challenge, because it seemed like everything that we ordered was not available. While we were eating, I looked over at Bariki sitting there in his short sleeved T-shirt and asked, “You did bring something warm to wear up there, right?” knowing that Madisi would be at least as cool at Kising’a is in June, if not cooler. Bariki replied, “No,” and sounded a little surprised. (We probably did not adequately inform him about possible conditions.) So after finishing our lunch, the three of us headed out to the Mafinga market. Bariki found a very nice jacket which is reversible. It was all of 8,000 tsh which is equivalent to a little less than $6. Too bad it is in Green Bay Packer colors.
After purchasing the jacket, we walked over to the bus station and found the Huruma bus to Madisi. To my delight we had the same bus driver that we had on the last leg of our first trip – Abeli who is a former student of the Vintons. He had this very low voice and he nearly scared me to death the first time we met him. (He had stuck his head in the front window of our first bus and said to us, “You need to get on the other bus,” without explaining who he was and where he was taking us.) He is a very good driver and takes very good care of his passengers.
We arrived in Madisi around 5 pm before sundown and the sun was shining and it was a nice cool day. We went for a short walk with Susan shortly after arriving and she took us down by their ram pump and we walked around it and found the spring that feeds it. She took to Bariki but kept calling him Barack or Baraka. Then we came back to the house. We had picked up our vegetable box on Friday and tried to cram as much of that into Dan’s pack along with some Anchor cheese, which is imported from New Zealand and Steve had clued us in that Susan really enjoys. Well, you should have heard the joy in Sarah’s voice when she saw the broccoli and cauliflower and snap peas. Sarah, who is from the US is one of the key people in the Village Schools Organization, is a real joy to be around. (I think that she helps Susan to keep her sanity and is really a great teacher with the kids – tough, but good!)
The following morning (Sunday) we “worshipped” by listening to a sermon on DVD, which was a sermon given by Oscar Muriu at the annual youth rally in Urbana Illinois this past year. He has a very large church in Nairobi, Kenya. His message still gives me goose bumps just thinking about how he started out his talk. It made me think of how Pastor Jan described the approach that was taken on the story of Christ this year at Oberammergau. I want to remember to look up the link to listen to it again! Steve Vinton mentioned the address in one of his most recent email letters.
Then we were off to round on Susan’s “friends.” Dan and Bariki came with us on the first visits.
We visited a young woman who was laying out in the sun on a grass mat and was obviously in a lot of pain. Dan took a couple of pictures of her. She cannot fully extend her right leg because the Kaposi’s lesion on her thigh causes her too much pain. Susan and I cleansed the lesion and redressed it with some dressings that she had and then we prayed with her and her family. Then we were on our way to see more patients. Later in the day, we, (Susan, Rashidi, one of the Vinton’s students and I) visited a couple with their three children. The couple has gotten tested and the husband knows that he is positive, but the wife threw away her first set of results because she did not want to know. Neither one of them has started ARVs yet. Well, Susan does not beat around the bush! Her first words were, “Do you want me to raise your children?” Then she launched into a lecture telling them that the wife has got to get tested again and based upon those results, they need to get started with treatment. Rashidi closed the visit by telling them that the stigma is gone now, because so many people in their area are getting treated. This young man is such a treasure. He comes to the Vinton’s home every night to enter statistics in their log and schedule for people to go in by bus for treatment. I cannot remember the details about his own family history, but I would not be surprised if he is an “orphan” of HIV. Among the other patients we visited included a young girl who may or may not have TB on top of her HIV as well as Jeska (whom I met on our first visit and whom I never expected to see again.) She looked so much better and so much more comfortable. She is able to walk now because her foot is so much better and Susan wants her to go into Dar to get chemo at Ocean Road for the residual Kaposi’s sarcoma on her foot. We also visited a witch doctor. Susan stated that he refuses to accept Christ because that would mean that he would have to give up his profession. He did allow her pray with him, however.
Late in the afternoon we visited a home filled with women who are all on ARVs and you would not know that they are sick unless you were told. They make baskets which Susan buys from them and this money allows them to sustain their households. Susan works with an interior designer who sells these baskets in the Houston area. The baskets are incredibly beautiful and if the quality is down, Susan will not purchase them. She does provide feedback to the ladies regarding her expectations and the next time she comes to purchase baskets, she sees much improvement. What pride they have in their products! At one point a woman stood up to bring her baskets up to Susan to inspect and Susan introduced her to us as “Mama Burton.” Then she explained to Mama Burton that we were going to visit Kising’a the following weekend. She then said something to us in Kiswahili and Susan said that she is asking you to please greet her son for her while we are there. Burton is a teacher at the secondary school in Kising’a. Dan took pictures, which you will be able to see, of the “basket ladies” and showed them to Burton the following weekend. It was so sweet. Burton saw his mother and wistfully said, “There is my mother.” He seemed so homesick to see her. At this point we concluded our visit with the ladies and it was now very dark outside. It also had been raining and we had to climb back up to the car and I was so sure that I would slip and fall. As we hiked up the hill, the women piled the baskets up on their heads and hiked up beside us, many of them in their bare feet. We piled all the baskets into the car and were off heading back to Madisi for a late dinner.
The following day was Tuesday and it was raining so much that Abeli cancelled the bus trip into town to deliver the people with HIV to the clinic, because the roads were so bad. That meant that our ride back to Mafinga was cancelled as well. Later in the morning, Susan said, “I am going to take you part way in with Abeli’s guidance and then we will have you three catch a taxi the remainder of the way.”
We started out with a prayer from Susan and were off heading down steep mud slicked roads which reminds one of icy winter roads in Minnesota. When we reached the point where we were to meet the taxi we pulled over and stopped on a side road/intersection. With some negotiation we arranged for Robert to drive us all of the way to Iringa and on the way he stopped off at Ifunda to visit a teacher whom Dan had met on the trip he took by himself to Tanzania in 2008. We also attempted to look up a few of the Madisi students who had started Form 5. We were able to locate one of the three students. Then it was off to Iringa. Road construction caused one delay, but we made it home that evening despite the rainy weather and muddy roads in Madisi.
Purchasing baskets in the living room. Susan is working on improving designs so they can be marketed to people who do not need baskets. In the village, function is what counts.:
Child who came to see us. Notice the coal heated iron in the lower left:
Women carrying the purchased baskets to the car for us:
At Ifunda Secondary school visiting Peter Mbata who was Juwata's roommate in Dar. Notice Bariki's new jacket, I don't think I have seen him without it since he got it.
After purchasing the jacket, we walked over to the bus station and found the Huruma bus to Madisi. To my delight we had the same bus driver that we had on the last leg of our first trip – Abeli who is a former student of the Vintons. He had this very low voice and he nearly scared me to death the first time we met him. (He had stuck his head in the front window of our first bus and said to us, “You need to get on the other bus,” without explaining who he was and where he was taking us.) He is a very good driver and takes very good care of his passengers.
We arrived in Madisi around 5 pm before sundown and the sun was shining and it was a nice cool day. We went for a short walk with Susan shortly after arriving and she took us down by their ram pump and we walked around it and found the spring that feeds it. She took to Bariki but kept calling him Barack or Baraka. Then we came back to the house. We had picked up our vegetable box on Friday and tried to cram as much of that into Dan’s pack along with some Anchor cheese, which is imported from New Zealand and Steve had clued us in that Susan really enjoys. Well, you should have heard the joy in Sarah’s voice when she saw the broccoli and cauliflower and snap peas. Sarah, who is from the US is one of the key people in the Village Schools Organization, is a real joy to be around. (I think that she helps Susan to keep her sanity and is really a great teacher with the kids – tough, but good!)
The following morning (Sunday) we “worshipped” by listening to a sermon on DVD, which was a sermon given by Oscar Muriu at the annual youth rally in Urbana Illinois this past year. He has a very large church in Nairobi, Kenya. His message still gives me goose bumps just thinking about how he started out his talk. It made me think of how Pastor Jan described the approach that was taken on the story of Christ this year at Oberammergau. I want to remember to look up the link to listen to it again! Steve Vinton mentioned the address in one of his most recent email letters.
Then we were off to round on Susan’s “friends.” Dan and Bariki came with us on the first visits.
We visited a young woman who was laying out in the sun on a grass mat and was obviously in a lot of pain. Dan took a couple of pictures of her. She cannot fully extend her right leg because the Kaposi’s lesion on her thigh causes her too much pain. Susan and I cleansed the lesion and redressed it with some dressings that she had and then we prayed with her and her family. Then we were on our way to see more patients. Later in the day, we, (Susan, Rashidi, one of the Vinton’s students and I) visited a couple with their three children. The couple has gotten tested and the husband knows that he is positive, but the wife threw away her first set of results because she did not want to know. Neither one of them has started ARVs yet. Well, Susan does not beat around the bush! Her first words were, “Do you want me to raise your children?” Then she launched into a lecture telling them that the wife has got to get tested again and based upon those results, they need to get started with treatment. Rashidi closed the visit by telling them that the stigma is gone now, because so many people in their area are getting treated. This young man is such a treasure. He comes to the Vinton’s home every night to enter statistics in their log and schedule for people to go in by bus for treatment. I cannot remember the details about his own family history, but I would not be surprised if he is an “orphan” of HIV. Among the other patients we visited included a young girl who may or may not have TB on top of her HIV as well as Jeska (whom I met on our first visit and whom I never expected to see again.) She looked so much better and so much more comfortable. She is able to walk now because her foot is so much better and Susan wants her to go into Dar to get chemo at Ocean Road for the residual Kaposi’s sarcoma on her foot. We also visited a witch doctor. Susan stated that he refuses to accept Christ because that would mean that he would have to give up his profession. He did allow her pray with him, however.
Late in the afternoon we visited a home filled with women who are all on ARVs and you would not know that they are sick unless you were told. They make baskets which Susan buys from them and this money allows them to sustain their households. Susan works with an interior designer who sells these baskets in the Houston area. The baskets are incredibly beautiful and if the quality is down, Susan will not purchase them. She does provide feedback to the ladies regarding her expectations and the next time she comes to purchase baskets, she sees much improvement. What pride they have in their products! At one point a woman stood up to bring her baskets up to Susan to inspect and Susan introduced her to us as “Mama Burton.” Then she explained to Mama Burton that we were going to visit Kising’a the following weekend. She then said something to us in Kiswahili and Susan said that she is asking you to please greet her son for her while we are there. Burton is a teacher at the secondary school in Kising’a. Dan took pictures, which you will be able to see, of the “basket ladies” and showed them to Burton the following weekend. It was so sweet. Burton saw his mother and wistfully said, “There is my mother.” He seemed so homesick to see her. At this point we concluded our visit with the ladies and it was now very dark outside. It also had been raining and we had to climb back up to the car and I was so sure that I would slip and fall. As we hiked up the hill, the women piled the baskets up on their heads and hiked up beside us, many of them in their bare feet. We piled all the baskets into the car and were off heading back to Madisi for a late dinner.
The following day was Tuesday and it was raining so much that Abeli cancelled the bus trip into town to deliver the people with HIV to the clinic, because the roads were so bad. That meant that our ride back to Mafinga was cancelled as well. Later in the morning, Susan said, “I am going to take you part way in with Abeli’s guidance and then we will have you three catch a taxi the remainder of the way.”
We started out with a prayer from Susan and were off heading down steep mud slicked roads which reminds one of icy winter roads in Minnesota. When we reached the point where we were to meet the taxi we pulled over and stopped on a side road/intersection. With some negotiation we arranged for Robert to drive us all of the way to Iringa and on the way he stopped off at Ifunda to visit a teacher whom Dan had met on the trip he took by himself to Tanzania in 2008. We also attempted to look up a few of the Madisi students who had started Form 5. We were able to locate one of the three students. Then it was off to Iringa. Road construction caused one delay, but we made it home that evening despite the rainy weather and muddy roads in Madisi.
Purchasing baskets in the living room. Susan is working on improving designs so they can be marketed to people who do not need baskets. In the village, function is what counts.:
Child who came to see us. Notice the coal heated iron in the lower left:
Women carrying the purchased baskets to the car for us:
At Ifunda Secondary school visiting Peter Mbata who was Juwata's roommate in Dar. Notice Bariki's new jacket, I don't think I have seen him without it since he got it.
Endgame
We are rapidly approaching the end of our time here. I have been busy with course preparation and working on the science curriculum. The courses have gone well and the students seem to have learned a lot with some of them becoming pretty good programmers. We want to come back. We leave Iringa on June 27th for a week dive vacation at Kervan Saray Beach Resort in Pemba next to Ngezi Forest Preserve. On the 28th we will fly to Zanzibar and on to Pemba where we need to take a taxi to Chake Chake and catch a daladala for a 90 minute ride to Konde on the north end of the island where we next go to the petrol station to find someone that can drive us the last 10 km to the resort. (We are saving the $80 each way they charge to pick you up). The resort looks to be very nice and is on the remote north end of the island. We are really looking forward to the break and will come back to Dar on July 5th and fly out on the 7th arriving in Mpls in the afternoon on the 8th.
Kising'a Visit
We went to Kising'a last Friday for a visit before we leave Iringa on June 27th. Bariki came with us along with a couple students LCP has sponsored through Secondary School. Aid Kasenegala is now studying to be a pastor at Tumaini and Anna is looking to go to Teacher's College. We had a wonderful reception as always and had "our" room with its custom made extra long bed.
We took Bariki's sister and new baby to see the grandparents in Lulanzi for the first time. From left to right, Anna, Bariki's sister, Aid, Bariki's parents, wazungu, and Bariki. The picture nicely demonstrates the cultural differences in photo posing between Tanzania and the US. A second photo was identical.
Greetings on arrival, it is always handy to have your air intake 5 feet off the ground in case you need to drive through 4 feet of water.
Dancing in Church. Fortunately for the members, Aid gave the sermon so Sue or I did not have to. They seem happy about it.
After church, we purchased firewood and parachichi (avocados) at the auction. Sue is showing that she can carry firewood Hehe style. Just after this picture was taken the professional on the left took over and sprinted our wood back to the house.
The Secondary school is building a dam for a ram pump to pump water up to the school using hydrostatic pressure. The earth dam is temporary so they can build a concrete dam below. It has a ways to go for height yet. We saw a ram pump in Madisi.
For the first time we were in Kising'a for Market Day, when trucks full of merchandise come up from Iringa to sell to the village. This is a way to service villages who have no stores other than small duka's selling some food items.
Kising'a Starbucks ready for customers:
The Market with one of the best customers, even bigger than you see here:
All these people in town means it is slaughter day. A pile of cow on banana leaves butchered with an axe and sold by the kilo.
If Obama's current job doesn't work out, he can always fall back on his line of Obama Jeans. The Michael Jackson jeans should be fading.
We took Bariki's sister and new baby to see the grandparents in Lulanzi for the first time. From left to right, Anna, Bariki's sister, Aid, Bariki's parents, wazungu, and Bariki. The picture nicely demonstrates the cultural differences in photo posing between Tanzania and the US. A second photo was identical.
Greetings on arrival, it is always handy to have your air intake 5 feet off the ground in case you need to drive through 4 feet of water.
Dancing in Church. Fortunately for the members, Aid gave the sermon so Sue or I did not have to. They seem happy about it.
After church, we purchased firewood and parachichi (avocados) at the auction. Sue is showing that she can carry firewood Hehe style. Just after this picture was taken the professional on the left took over and sprinted our wood back to the house.
The Secondary school is building a dam for a ram pump to pump water up to the school using hydrostatic pressure. The earth dam is temporary so they can build a concrete dam below. It has a ways to go for height yet. We saw a ram pump in Madisi.
For the first time we were in Kising'a for Market Day, when trucks full of merchandise come up from Iringa to sell to the village. This is a way to service villages who have no stores other than small duka's selling some food items.
Kising'a Starbucks ready for customers:
The Market with one of the best customers, even bigger than you see here:
All these people in town means it is slaughter day. A pile of cow on banana leaves butchered with an axe and sold by the kilo.
If Obama's current job doesn't work out, he can always fall back on his line of Obama Jeans. The Michael Jackson jeans should be fading.
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