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A Day in the Life of a Teacher

"My Mad life consisted entirely of building work. Well, almost. One day, not so very different from any other, I found myself stood in front of a class full of kids, armed with a textbook and red pen, expected to actually teach them something! Quite a shock, and I have to say that the kids were my best guide to what I was actually teaching them. Somehow I muddled through six lessons like this, with subjects ranging from Maths to Social Studies (and everything in between). I rather suspect that they knew more than me half the time, but no way would I let them know that!

The school itself was really quite small, with only about 100 pupils in total, and supposedly three teachers, though at most we only saw two. My class, Standard 4 (eleven year olds) only had nine pupils in. Standard 5 (twelve year olds) had eight in, which was unusually low. Apparently the Government recently has had a drive to educate all children to primary school level - thus primary schools are generally flooded with kids.

In general, the kids were quite shy in the classroom, and I struggled to get them to respond (especially to my 'different' teaching methods). However, as soon as they were given a football they got much more boisterous, and loved it when a friend took a photo on a digital camera and showed it to them.

The curriculum was not as diverse, detailed or in depth as in England. It basically consisted of teaching out of a textbook, or copying from the board, which I found quite frustrating. I also found that even though all lessons were taught in English, the kids level of comprehension when it came to reading was very low - although spoken English was much better.

Perhaps it's a sign of how much I've adjusted to life here, but something I found surprising was how close the main village was to the school. The Maasai are nomadic so I expected that the kids would have to walk a fair way to get there, but in recent years they have become less so. This makes it easier for tourists to find them, and tourists now contribute to Maasai income.

All in all I found my day as a teacher to be quite an experience. The kids were lovely, staff really helpful and it all contributed to making it a positive experience."

Ellie Hayden
14th March 2005. Mad Maasai Kenya Project

Projects - Mad Teachers

“With the sun having risen, the cock crowing, and the neighbourhood stirring, by 7:30 there was no alternative but to get up and start the day. One slice of bread and jam later I would walk the ten minutes to Kyabirwa primary School to the sound of “ow are you?” I’d spend my morning teaching English, History and games to classes of 75-220 children! Marking books at break and helping some pupils with their reading. A mug of sweet coconut tea and roasted cassava set us on until lunctime. If I was not teaching in the afternoon I’d collect the lunch of Chapatis, egg, and salad from Monica and catch a boda boda to the building site. Painting, digging, and the endless moving of rocks would fill the afternoons as we worked under the inquisitive eyes of the yellow uniformed children. At the end of the day a quick swim in the cool, refreshing river Nile would refresh all after a meal of beans, cabbage and potatoes there’d be a drink down at the local campsite by the Nile and then bed to the accompaniment of bats.”

Rebecca Wraight, Madteacher
Jinja, Uganda.

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