School Name: Escuela Secondaria de Isla de Mocambique.
School Location: Isla de Mocambique
School Enrollment: appromximately 1400 students, with a fairly even ratio of male/female students
In working with the Peace Corps privacy rules, I will not name the volunteer interviewed about teaching and school conditions in a government secondary school in Northern Mozambique; our interview follows:
What are the main challenges being faced by the school?
The lack of textbooks is the biggest problem in the school. The books are provided by students up until 7th grade, so in secondary school, they are not paid for anymore, and they are rather expensive for the students to purchase. (Are the books provided in English, Portuguese, or local languages? )The english books are in english, but the other textbooks are all in Portguguese. There are a few local language books used by the very young grades, but that it is in that regards. (What other challenges are faced by the schools?) There is a big cheating culture here in the schools. There is not much competition here, for instance, if someone is really smart, everyone will simply copy off of them and the teachers will usually turn a blind eye. The teachers will also pay favorites as well with students, and will often pressure other teachers into changing grades for favored students.
What has been the biggest success for the school?
The building of the school is new, paid for by a partnership with the Government of Holland (in visiting the school, it is a beautiful refurbishment of the old, colonial structure, which has been upkept well by the local government, and includes such features as a basketball/soccer court in constant use by the students). The school also has a computer lab-there are about 10 computers, which are in generally very good condition. (Is there an internet connection to these machines?) They are not connected to the internet; however, there is an informatics class that the students take about once per week, and this teachers basic computing, such as word, excel and other basics of computing.
What critical resources are missing? How would they be used?
The class sizes are here are very large; at the 11th and 12th grades, students are broken into vocations, such as medical and teaching. Some of these classes have 40-60-70 students at that grade; one of the volutneers on the mainland has a class with 130 students! (As there is a very high birthrate in this part of the world, it is simply a huge burden for the educational system to absorb so many students, given the meager resources available to the schools. A critical family planning-education connection).
Where were the teachers trained? What guidance do they have in the classroom?
There are teacher training schools in the region that are supported by both the government and by NGO's, both local and international. A lot of the teachers here attend these training schools. Several of the teachers at the school are doing continuing education programs through different pedagogical schools in the area as well, mostly located in Nampula, the Provincial capital. There is distance education available as well for the teachers in the area. For secondary school, you have to have 2 years of college in order to teach. For primary, you do not need college to be a teacher.
Where does the school’s funding come from?
The school is fully funded by the government, execpt for the building of the school, which, as mentioned, was paid for by the government of Holland.
Partnerships with outside organizations-who/what/where/why?
Other than the partnership with the Government of Holland, the school operates autonomously.
How is technology being implemented into the classrooms in the school? Is there access to technology in any facet?
The only technology exposure for the students in the school is in the computer lab. There was a projector used once, but this has not been used in teaching since. (Side Note: Access to simple technologies, such as projectors, and their utilization in the classroom can be a game-changer in terms of educational efficiencies and student involvement. What is a critical missing link in this is the accountability with these resources. What about a “Projectors for Africa” program?? )
Has there been any work with or partnerships with organizations working to develop a school library, or any community libraries that can be accessed by the students?
There is a school library with textbooks that the students can use whenever they wish; however, it is a small library with only school textbooks. There are no random reading books for the kids to look at or to sign out. (What about the local library I saw yesterday?) The local library requires kids to be supervised, from my understanding. The high schools kids do use the community library, I have seen them there working before; however it is pretty new. (Note: I have visited this library, and from a library development standpoint, it was impressive; there is access to computers, lots of local language resources, and a children's area. I will look more closely into this facility this week).
Are there any other local educational groups that you have interacted with or had exposure to in your tenure as a teacher here in Isla?
On the mainland there is an informatics class that is associated with the Millennium Village Project. There is also a computer lab that is run by them here on the island, but that is not free. The local SEMAN project works in information technology and training in computing, but this is not free of charge either; some of the teachers at the school are going there to learn about computers.
