First Day of School

“La rentree” as it is called in French, I experienced my first “first day of school” not as a student, but from the other side, as an administrator. What a different way of running things here. The first day found me receiving parents who were still registering their children, bargaining for computers, giving an interview for the radio, and managing the food vendors for the school. I couldn’t believe the entire day was packed with the parents who waited until the day of to put their kids in school (and apparently it is like this all week).

School starts at 7:15 AM, but most students didn’t get in until 8-9. Everyone was gathered in the courtyard in front of the classrooms and separated into “levels,” a grouping system Cameroon uses for classes. One of the teachers had the students march in place while singing some common song. Then as he whistled at everyone, they all filed into their respective classrooms. Slightly militant, but the kids seemed to be having fun.

The teachers who remained from last year then took over the level they had taught and held typical “first day” lessons, complete with revision of last year’s material.

Last week was the first day of school for the teachers (like in the US). Whoever showed up on the first of September was given his/her job back. Everyone else was assumed to have moved on to other things. The second or third was the day that everyone who had applied for a job showed up. After waiting about 2 hours (for our Pedagogic Advisor) all the prospective and old teachers took a “test.” Each person was required to write two essays, one commenting on a quote, and one describing how to handle a classroom. These then became a large basis for deciding what level each teacher would be teaching.

According to everyone, this entire week will be the same as today. No real schedule, no real classes. As of yet, no schedule has been set and no teacher knows what class he/she is teaching. After Friday we review the number of students we have for each grade. We then decide how many teachers we need (dragging along the applicants until this weekend), and what class they will take. Imagine my surprise to hear that teachers can’t prepare lesson plans until the weekend after school starts!

As for me, I won’t start teaching my computer classes (part-time) until next week. Good thing, since A) we only have one working computer (my old laptop) and B) the teacher’s books the government says I am supposed to use have not yet been printed…

Thus went my day. Everyday something new.