Supervision Stint
Today I visited a school with some of the Primary Education Advisors to take part in joint supervision. I always find this interesting and a bit of a challenge as I can sometimes feel like ‘who am I to tell these teachers who have 20 years experience how to teach!’. But they do listen to what I have to say and especially respond to the positive aspects as they don’t often get positive feedback. (One PEA once told me that we didn’t need to tell them what they were doing well because they already do it well!).
Anyway the school was the local school and is quite a big one. I have been many times to do various things at the school especially supervision of the new curriculum which last year was just in the standard 1 class (6 year olds). Today I was watching a Standard 5 class. The schools in the centre area tend to be better staffed as there are more job opportunities and generally a better quality of life so the average ratio is normally quite good (say 50 learners to one teacher).
However, that doesn’t stop teachers calling in sick, attending funerals or other trainings at the last minute resulting in a shortage of teachers for the relevant classes. There is no supply list to call and it is up to the management of the school on how to best ‘fix’ the situation. The headteacher of the school today was off sick as were several members of his staff. Nothing new and to be honest I have yet to go to a school where every member of staff is present.
There are 3 standard 5 classes but today due to shortages they were all combined. I counted 152 pupils and they were sitting outside under a tree with a portable blackboard. There were actually 2 teachers but unfortunately one had completely lost her voice so was really just monitoring and whispering to some groups. I was really impressed that she had come to school in the first place! Large classes of 150 plus is not uncommon but the difference between these classes and todays lot is that the children today are not used to being in such a large group. The poor teacher really did her best and I was impressed with her attitude. Her planning and everything was fine but having so many children was really a challenge to her. I’m not actually sure how much learning was taking place as most kids were just sitting and watching what was going on, plus enjoying the view of a ‘mzungu’ in their classroom! She was using the new ideas of this new curriculum which encourages participatory methods including pair work and group work but with so many it was hard to monitor. I really did think that I would not have managed any better in the situation, only that my voice is louder so they might have heard better!! It is also worth noting that the behaviour of the class was excellent!
For all you teachers out there, just try to empathise with this poor teacher and many like her all across Africa!!
Anyway the school was the local school and is quite a big one. I have been many times to do various things at the school especially supervision of the new curriculum which last year was just in the standard 1 class (6 year olds). Today I was watching a Standard 5 class. The schools in the centre area tend to be better staffed as there are more job opportunities and generally a better quality of life so the average ratio is normally quite good (say 50 learners to one teacher).
However, that doesn’t stop teachers calling in sick, attending funerals or other trainings at the last minute resulting in a shortage of teachers for the relevant classes. There is no supply list to call and it is up to the management of the school on how to best ‘fix’ the situation. The headteacher of the school today was off sick as were several members of his staff. Nothing new and to be honest I have yet to go to a school where every member of staff is present.
There are 3 standard 5 classes but today due to shortages they were all combined. I counted 152 pupils and they were sitting outside under a tree with a portable blackboard. There were actually 2 teachers but unfortunately one had completely lost her voice so was really just monitoring and whispering to some groups. I was really impressed that she had come to school in the first place! Large classes of 150 plus is not uncommon but the difference between these classes and todays lot is that the children today are not used to being in such a large group. The poor teacher really did her best and I was impressed with her attitude. Her planning and everything was fine but having so many children was really a challenge to her. I’m not actually sure how much learning was taking place as most kids were just sitting and watching what was going on, plus enjoying the view of a ‘mzungu’ in their classroom! She was using the new ideas of this new curriculum which encourages participatory methods including pair work and group work but with so many it was hard to monitor. I really did think that I would not have managed any better in the situation, only that my voice is louder so they might have heard better!! It is also worth noting that the behaviour of the class was excellent!
For all you teachers out there, just try to empathise with this poor teacher and many like her all across Africa!!
posted by Caroline Pitcairn at
4:53 pm
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