Barriers to Schooling

Part of my job here is to help promote the use of learners' mother tongues in the formal school system. So I get to rub elbows with all sorts of government people and UNICEF people and other NGO people from the education sector. And I really enjoy this aspect of my job - it was a pretty steep learning curve at first, but I'm really starting to get a hang of the "lingo" and I'm getting to know more and more people in the little education sector circle! It was quite nice today, actually, because I haven't been around to many of meetings or anything lately - there's just been too much going on with the other aspects of my work for me to get out much - and so many people said that they'd missed me! I even got great big bear hugs from these two wonderful UNICEF women that I love! It's good to have these sorts of relationships with people like that, so we can talk freely and openly and share about what's going on - information sharing is always a problem here, and it's really, really hard to be on top of all the new things that happen, or new appointments in the government etc. So it's important to just sit and chat with poeple once in a while!

Anyways, today I went to an all day workshop today in which a study on the economic and socio-cultural barriers to education in this country was presented. The consulting company that did the study presented their findings and wanted input from others in the government and partners. For the most part, the study was really well done - very thorough, well presented... but they missed a huge key factor! They didn't mention language at all! Doesn't it seem rather obvious there is a barrier to education if a teacher is teaching in a foreign language that the child doesn't know?

But for many people around here, education = English. You are educated if you speak English. It doesn't matter if you can solve problems, or think critically, or analyze information or comprehend something you've read, or express your thoughts in a well-thought out essay. No, if you can converse in English, even if it's just something you've learned by rote memory, you are educated.

So there's a bit of an uphill battle sometimes to help people realize the potential of learning first in their mother tongue! (once again, I will refrain from stepping up onto my soap box...)

But I had some opportunities to have some input into this study that's being done, which will also form the basis for the recommendations for the "way forward" for education in this country! It's a bit of a scary thought sometimes, because Ministers and other important people, both in the gov't and in NGOs are actually starting to listen to what Jackie and I have to say about becoming literate in the mother tongue before moving into using English as a medium of instruction. So please pray that Jackie and I speak wisely and can give good advice on the situation here. Because it really is such a privilege to be able to have a part in building up this country and working towards better education for the children here.

By the way, there was a funny quote that I wrote down today during a conversation about corporal punishment for learners in the classrooms. The man who was speaking said we need to train teachers in alternative methods of discipline - he suggested teachers give the children books to read as punishment rather than caning them! Man, I really hope the teachers of this country don't see, gasp, reading a book as a form of punishment! I guess that's why we need to keep having Writers' Workshops, to make sure there's something decent to read in people's languages so they don't see it as a punishment... um, my brain is tired from all my talking today and I'm starting to ramble, so I'd best get this posted and go to sleep!