School

Creeping around the corner is the source of life, that African sun that invigorates and fatigues. The ocean lazily soaks up the rays and reflects them like sparkling diamonds. I vacillate in my chair on the balcony between profiting from the sun and hiding in the shadows to relieve myself from the heat. In the distance to the north is the hill with the Mamelle lighthouse that sleeps now during the day, but will awake when the sun decides to take its siesta. The setting is predictable here; almost everyday is identical. Recently the nights have been breezy, taking the edge off the humid heat. The humidity is supposed to diminish in November, and the heat toward the end of December, when the locals say it begins to gets cold for a couple months (75F and sunny during the day, and 60F at night). This afternoon is certainly a lazy one for me, as I have chosen to slow down the pace. A couple nights ago I believe I did not sufficiently bleach the lettuce for my salad, so I fell sick yesterday. Microbes abound, and my stomach is so sensitive...
I’m feeling better now, after having taken the morning off of work and going out for a few groceries. Speaking of work, let me tell you what this week has been like. I am working at a middle school in the middle of the city. I have been assigned to teach English to one class of 6th graders and two classes of 8 graders. This past Monday was the first day back, but of no surprise to the locals, classes were not held. Here, families have financial difficulties of such magnitude that putting food on the table can be an accomplishment. Recently the country celebrated “La Korite”, the end of Ramadan. The holiday is as big as Christmas in the west. Therefore, all the families spent any money they had on the holiday expenses, and as a consequence, money is scarce. In order for classes to begin in school, each family has to pay a registration fee of about $30-$60 per student. Without payment, we have no official list of students registered. Without an official list, we can’t start teaching! So, this whole week I went to work, and spent the time chatting with my colleagues (we are only about 20), while the secretaries registered students who did have the means to come by the school and pay their fees. As of Thursday morning about 100 of about 350-400 students had registered. The principal said we’ll start teaching classes this next Monday even if all haven’t registered. What that means in practical terms, is that I may not have full classes until the beginning or mid-November! I am supposed to teach, yet be resourceful enough to revisit material when large numbers of students show up to the class a week or two late.
Now, if you’re thinking about alternative, more efficient ways of starting school over here, don’t think you’re the first. Even some on the staff feel things can and need to be changed, but that means demanding not that you change, but that OTHERS change; which is difficult anywhere, but acutely so here!

That’s one part of the education story. Let’s move to the university level. Abdoulaye’s brother, Ousmane, is studying Portuguese at the university here in Dakar. Last year the students went on strike several times because the university did not provide enough classrooms or chairs or even space within a classroom for all the enrolled students. Needless to say, it’s difficult to learn any subject if you can’t find any place in the room where the teaching is supposedly taking place. So, the university response? They kept classes in session into the summer, but delayed exams until the first week of October. That meant that the start of the fall semester would be delayed. Well Ousmane went to take his Portuguese finals last week, and the teachers did not have enough copies of the exams for the students scheduled to take it, including him, nor--again--were there enough spots in the room. Ousmane did not take the final, doesn’t know if or when he will take it, does not know when classes for the new semester will start, because the obvious shortage of teachers relative to the number of students means the teachers will need weeks to correct all the exams...IT’S A DISASTER!!

Is it any wonder that young people drop out of school here? One, it’s nearly impossible to learn. Two, if you make it through, there are no jobs. Third, being in school without the possibility of leaving for a developed country, is a waste of your time and potential to contribute income to your family through menial jobs. That’s why we hear about boat people, those who risk their lives and sometimes lose them, in canoe-like fishing boats on the unforgiving Atlantic Ocean in pursuit of Spain. And so many of them are university graduates!