Mubiza Primary School
It will be fitting to end this tale with some information about the school where I have been working.
From Boma House the journey in the principal’s car takes about fifteen minutes. I wait for the car at the top of the road where the main road out of town heads towards Ngoma and the border with Botswana. Usually I have two bags to carry with me as I take my netbook (which has been invaluable), a file of papers that I’m working on, my Timetable file, fruit for lunch, drink, umbrella, insect bite cream etc.
Since the first day I have had the front passenger seat and there are two other teachers in the back, Chuma the Head of Department and Rosemary the Lower Primary Phase leader. The arrangement of seats is very hierarchical. I jump in and we head off down the road.
There are always people, children (always unsupervised but usually in groups) and adults walking along the road in both directions. The various schools are spread out at intervals of about 10km servicing villages and family compounds. The drive is through scrub / bush and because it is coming to the end of summer, the tall grasses are now turning yellow and brown. There is a wide strip of grass before the trees begin. It is not like a forest but there are trees everywhere (deciduous - so it must look very different in the winter) except where they have been cut down to make rough fields. Maize is the only crop I have seen growing. It does not grow close and lush like in France but spindly and uneven. I think this is because all of the seed is re-cycled so the crop just degenerates. The children learn about keeping the best seed in their agriculture lessons but maybe the adults don’t practise this yet. The other difficulty is irregular rainfall.
When we are about 10km for school we start seeing Mubiza children in groups along the roadside heading for school. Mostly they run. Dorothy always toots her horn and waves at the children. The school uniform is blue shirts and grey trousers or skirts and is worn by everyone except the poorest children. The groups of children look like blue ribbons floating down the road!
School registration is 6.50am (7.20am in the winter) and then lessons begin at 7am. The school is very well organised with Timetables and set numbers of lessons in certain subjects per week. The curriculum is thoroughly written in every subject and for lower primary, is organised thematically. Lower primary do continuous assessment and Upper Primary do exams. Teachers have set proformas on which to plan all of their lessons and these files are collected in weekly to be monitored by the principal, H.O.D. and the Lower Phase Leader. They have class registers and lists to record OVC (orphans and vulnerable children). A child is classed an orphan if one parents has died.
The new pre-primary class has thirteen children and a bright room with a new mat for activities. The Ministry has provided these children with nursery games, equipment, toys and books so in some ways they are the luckiest in the school. They follow a reduced time table and ‘subjects’ last only 30 minutes. They are taught in first language but introduced where appropriate to some words in English. From January they have learned to stand up and say ‘Good morning Madam, how are you?’ when I enter their room!
There are four grades in Lower Primary (1-4) and by Grade 4 all of the teaching is done in English. All children learn two languages from the beginning of school. In Upper Primary the lessons are taught by subject teachers. Grade 5-7 children stay in their class and the teachers move round. Principals are expected to have some teaching commitment. Dorothy teaches Grade 7 Silozi.
The curriculum is composed of Promotional Subjects, those subjects that have exams which have to be passed in order for a child to be promoted to the next grade. These are Silozi, English, Maths, Natural Science, Social Studies and Early Agriculture. Non-promotional subjects include Arts, PE, BIS (basic information studies (library), Religious and Moral Education, and Life Skills. Usually it is these subjects which are missed by teachers. The PE and Arts curriculum suffer in particular from lack of commitment from the teachers.
The school week is thirty nine periods (knock off early on a Friday!); four before break and four after break each day. Break is thirty minutes, 9.40 – 10.10am.
The school is small, only 224 pupils organised into eight classes, so it is fairly quiet and the children generally are very well behaved. The move around the school calmly and wait by themselves in class if their teacher doesn’t turn up. If teachers attend meetings or Workshops (curriculum courses which can last for four days) no-one covers the class. The lessons are just missed and the children wait.
At break the routine would be that Lower Primary would have their porridge and break and then the older children would have their meal at the end of the school day. However, since there is no water at the school as the pump is broken, the feeding programme has stopped as the volunteers who make the food cannot carry the water that is needed. Children go hungry and thirsty. I’m often asked if I have any water.
A bell (the school burglar alarm) is rung between lessons and to sound the end of the day. If there are no afterschool activities, for example school cleaning (gardening and keeping the sand clear or weeds), then everyone goes home very promptly. The staff have themselves organised. There are three cars and this is enough to get everyone to and fro from Katima where everyone lives. Only occasionally does this lift system break down and then teachers have to go to the main road to the hitching station. There is no public transport as the area is just too rural but drivers do expect a payment if they offer a list. It is N$ 10 to transfer between Mubiza and Katima.
Often Dorothy’s car is the last to leave. Sometimes the teachers are taking home food they have bought from the village butcher or someone has been along selling fish from the lake, sour milk or vegetables grown locally. Everything just gets piled in. We make a slow turn on the deep sand and head slowly out to the road for the hot journey back as the chickens and cattle take over the school site for another night.
