Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Monday, August 29, 2005
Today the school reopened. Students were expected to arrive and bring with them money for an assessment for damages from the riot, and a form that had been sent to their homes. One side of the form was a statement that basically said I Will Not Riot Again, but in addition to being signed by the student and his parents, it had to be signed and stamped by District Commissioner, Regional Commissioner, and Head of the School Board in the student’s home town. The other side had two questions, basically: 1. What were the reason(s) you participated? and 2. Who were the leaders.
The teachers were gathered in the Staff Room, organized to “process” the returning students. Each class had an assigned teacher with a checklist, waiting to assure that the returnee had fully paid his school fees (check), paid the damage assessment (check), paid any other outstanding bills (check) and had completed the Form and it had been accepted (check). Only then would the student be permitted to proceed to their classroom.
A handful of day students showed up. My own responsibility was class VI-B, who are all boarding students. Only one of my VI-B student showed up. He was accepted.
This experience was typical – we “processed” one or two students per class. But there are all kinds of problems. Some of the forms were only sent out late last week, so weren’t received in time for the students to get their stamped authorizations. A student arrived from Tarime, quite a long distance away, and was immediately sent back home to get the stamped signatures, even though his family hadn’t even received the bloody form.
Then, this afternoon I had to visit a teacher at our neighboring school, Nganza. There was a Class VI student camped out with the teacher there. He DID have the needed stamps, but he answered the “Why did you riot” and “Who were the leaders” questions by saying that when it seemed that there might be a demonstration, he ran away and so he wasn’t there and doesn’t know who the leaders were. But the school wouldn’t accept those answers, and so here he was, all upset and not knowing what to do.
I tried to coach him: Stick to your answers, but be ready for the obvious followup questions: At what point did you leave? What was going on just then? Why did you think things might get out of hand? Where did you go? Who can confirm that? But I don’t think he got it – the culture here is just to stop answering questions when things get tense, and that simply looks like passive resistance. He wouldn’t role-play with me at all, just sat there, hung his head and half smiled. And this is a SMART kid.
It is clearly going to take quite a while to get this school back in operation.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Day two, and no change here at Nsumba Secondary. A very few additional students showed up today, but there certainly was no parade of returning students, not even among Class IV that will be facing national examinations in a month. Even the day students who were not involved aren’t returning. Those that have come back say that nobody wants to fill out the forms identifying the leaders of the disturbance, that they have been threatened if they do, and anyway they are afraid they would have to testify in court.
****FLASH**** It was just reported that there was a riot at another school, this one over near Arusha, and it caused considerably more damage than ours. It must be the thing to do this year – this makes four schools now: Nsumba, Sumve (since re-opened, where Kara is the PCV), Tarime, and now Karatu (where a first year PCV, Matthew Reid, is teaching).
So what to do here at Nsumba? Wait for next week? Change the rules for returning? Close the school? STAY TUNED for then next THRILLing episode of Education in Tanzania, when... ?
Today the school reopened. Students were expected to arrive and bring with them money for an assessment for damages from the riot, and a form that had been sent to their homes. One side of the form was a statement that basically said I Will Not Riot Again, but in addition to being signed by the student and his parents, it had to be signed and stamped by District Commissioner, Regional Commissioner, and Head of the School Board in the student’s home town. The other side had two questions, basically: 1. What were the reason(s) you participated? and 2. Who were the leaders.
The teachers were gathered in the Staff Room, organized to “process” the returning students. Each class had an assigned teacher with a checklist, waiting to assure that the returnee had fully paid his school fees (check), paid the damage assessment (check), paid any other outstanding bills (check) and had completed the Form and it had been accepted (check). Only then would the student be permitted to proceed to their classroom.
A handful of day students showed up. My own responsibility was class VI-B, who are all boarding students. Only one of my VI-B student showed up. He was accepted.
This experience was typical – we “processed” one or two students per class. But there are all kinds of problems. Some of the forms were only sent out late last week, so weren’t received in time for the students to get their stamped authorizations. A student arrived from Tarime, quite a long distance away, and was immediately sent back home to get the stamped signatures, even though his family hadn’t even received the bloody form.
Then, this afternoon I had to visit a teacher at our neighboring school, Nganza. There was a Class VI student camped out with the teacher there. He DID have the needed stamps, but he answered the “Why did you riot” and “Who were the leaders” questions by saying that when it seemed that there might be a demonstration, he ran away and so he wasn’t there and doesn’t know who the leaders were. But the school wouldn’t accept those answers, and so here he was, all upset and not knowing what to do.
I tried to coach him: Stick to your answers, but be ready for the obvious followup questions: At what point did you leave? What was going on just then? Why did you think things might get out of hand? Where did you go? Who can confirm that? But I don’t think he got it – the culture here is just to stop answering questions when things get tense, and that simply looks like passive resistance. He wouldn’t role-play with me at all, just sat there, hung his head and half smiled. And this is a SMART kid.
It is clearly going to take quite a while to get this school back in operation.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Day two, and no change here at Nsumba Secondary. A very few additional students showed up today, but there certainly was no parade of returning students, not even among Class IV that will be facing national examinations in a month. Even the day students who were not involved aren’t returning. Those that have come back say that nobody wants to fill out the forms identifying the leaders of the disturbance, that they have been threatened if they do, and anyway they are afraid they would have to testify in court.
****FLASH**** It was just reported that there was a riot at another school, this one over near Arusha, and it caused considerably more damage than ours. It must be the thing to do this year – this makes four schools now: Nsumba, Sumve (since re-opened, where Kara is the PCV), Tarime, and now Karatu (where a first year PCV, Matthew Reid, is teaching).
So what to do here at Nsumba? Wait for next week? Change the rules for returning? Close the school? STAY TUNED for then next THRILLing episode of Education in Tanzania, when... ?
