For background, I am describing some of my experiences from the US Peace Corps in Guinea, West Africa. More information on this series is available in the introduction. Although, I was one of only two Americans in a small rural school with one class per grade teaching in a foreign language, my experiences in the beginning were not at all unlike any first time teacher I have spoken with since. A little performance anxiety was common in the first few months, but that gradually gave way to the normal challenges that teaching high school students brings, and a few that were not so normal (at least not to Americans).
The language of education in Guinea is French. Teaching in French, I first thought would be overwhelming, especially as someone who had only 1 year of college study and 3 months of Peace Corps training in the language. However, I soon learned that as the teacher, I controlled the course of the class, and didn't have to worry about the subject drifting off into some area where I didn't want it to go. It helped that I mostly taught Mathematics, and not History or some other subject requiring more open ended discussion. It also helped that my students were also speaking their second language in school, so our range of vocabulary was not extremely different. I continued to study French throughout my service, adding more and more vocabulary in each class, and was very comfortable in the classroom and elsewhere by the start of my second year.
In the town of Kankalabe, where I lived, there was one primary school covering grades 1 through 6 and one secondary school covering grades 7 through 11 (and sometimes 12). I taught Math to grades 9 and 11, and for one semester my secondary year taught Math and Physics to grade 12 before the administration closed that grade level at our school and sent the students off to other towns to finish their education. To give you an idea of the attrition rate among students, there were classes of about 80 students in 7th grade, and about 12 students in 11th and 12th grades. In the last year of primary school, 6th grade, there would be almost twice as many students as in the 7th grade classroom.
Education in Guinea is free, students are responsible for their own supplies and uniforms and occaisional maintenance activities at the school (repairing the fence), but no fees otherwise. Required exams at the end of grade 6, grade 10, and grade 12, determined whether a student could pass on to the next level or not. Students had three attempts to pass the exam before they would be forced out. In addition, each grade could be attempted up to three times before students would be advised to seek other opportunities. Consequently, there was a significant range of ages in each class, with my 9th grade class having students who were anywhere from 13 to 22 years old.
For an example of class sizes, in my second year, my 9th grade class was comprised of about 45 students, while my 11th grade class had 12. There were 8 students in the 12th grade class that I taught for one semester. That, of course, makes a gigantic difference on what kind of teaching you can do. The students were mostly boys, although that was slowly changing with the implementation of universal primary education. Only about 10% of my students were girls in 9th grade, and I had only one girl student from my 11th and 12 grade classes. [ad name="Adsense Small Horz Banner"] The students are generally used to a kind of rote teaching where the teacher writes notes on the blackboard and the students copy them to their notebooks and then a short discussion happens where the material is rehearsed several times, examples are worked out and assignments are given. As Peace Corps volunteers, used to a more varied style, we often try other things in our classrooms. Sometimes this met with great excitement and bright eyed learning, and other times it met with laughs and stares and confusion. But, at least we Americans cut through the routine sometimes. Generally, I found it useful to follow the style they were used to most of the time, and only changed to more American style methods when I thought the opportunity was too good to pass up. The only practice I changed in every lesson was the amount of drill, working out lots of similar problems, rather than a few complex ones as was typical of the French education system.
The school week included 6 days, Monday through Saturday (like the French system), but Fridays (Muslim holy day) and Wednesdays were usually "half days", when students were dismissed at noon. Classes were typically 2 hours long, and students would have up to 3 each day, thus spending 6 hours, 8:00am to 2:00pm at school. Lunch was not provided or available, but some women might be on the school grounds selling snacks, before the students went home after 2:00pm for a meal at home. [ad name="Peace Corps In Line Banner"] In the evenings the students studied by candlelight or kerosene lamp, and I did the same in preparing my lesson plans and grading assignments. There was no electricity or running water at the school, or in almost all of the homes in the town of Kankalabe. the dedication required to complete work and study in this environment is considerable.
All in all, my students were polite, respectful, and good natured. Most worked hard, although a few clearly were not ready. The brightest students there would be on par with bright students in the United States, a significant achievement considering the obstacles and the limited opportunities following their education. As the most significant part of my service in the Peace Corps, I was glad to have had the opportunity to teach at an undermanned rural school and make a difference in the education of my students.