America's Best Side

From Danielle--

Items worthy of note:

There are 28,000 primary schools in Ethiopia.

And 1,500 high schools.

(In case you read over that quickly, read it again).

Ethiopia’s education policy states that students should be literate in their mother tongue by first grade. Largely, this actually doesn’t happen until fourth grade.

From about fifth or eighth grade up (it varies school to school), all subjects thereafter are taught in English. So, if the students don’t know English well by fifth grade, they will struggle through the rest of their school careers or drop out.

Generally, teachers here are not teachers by choice. This is how you enter the “track to become a teacher”: If you pass your tenth grade exam, you go on to further schooling/university, etc. But if you fail your tenth grade exam, then you go to teacher trainer college or vocational school.

Did you catch that? The teachers are those who scored the poorest on their exams.

This week, as Peace Corps and USAID and Ethiopia’s Ministry of Education have unloaded these facts on us, we 71 volunteers are coming to realize we’re in quite over our heads. My heart sinks at this continuous cycle full of Catch-22s: if a teacher is struggling in his/her own English, and is teaching a classroom full of students who go home from school none the smarter, and the parents see no progress after one year, two years, etc., will the parents keep the children in school? Not in a culture/community where you are sacrificing a ton to send your child to school; instead, your child could be working at the house or elsewhere, to bring in revenue for the family. The children will be kept in school if the parents see results. But how will the parents see results if there are none to report, because the system is full of discrepancies?

It is tempting to trace this back to step one, to how the teachers are chosen: by failing their exams. But the luxury that exists in America for adults to choose to be underpaid teachers does not exist here. If you have smarts and the opportunity, you go after that high-paying profession for the sake of your family and your own well-being.

So the question is, what can we do to help? How can we enter the cycle part-way through and do something of worth?

Hence the Peace Corps does not emphasize taking on a classroom for 2 years, only to leave the spot open for another volunteer afterwards. Instead we are here to train and to transfer skills. Teach a man to fish: help a teacher better his/her English; help a teacher to teach effectively. We are here to begin sustainable projects, programs, clubs, etc. that are sustainable in the absence of Americans, and will last well beyond our 27 months. We are essentially here to work ourselves out of a job, so that Peace Corps won’t be here 30 years from now, because Ethiopia won’t need us.

Thank God. This would all be silly otherwise. We are thankful for the vision of the Peace Corps, and thus far, we are in full agreement and support.

So let’s get the ball rolling!

Sunday, we finally get to leave this hotel, leave the capital. (From this point forward, we hope we can get internet here and there, perhaps every few weeks. We shall try to keep those of you back at home updated. But otherwise, assume we are safe and joyful and content, because it is most likely the case).

On Father’s Day we acquire more parents and move in with our host family in a site near Assela in the Oromia region of Ethiopia. We will have 9 weeks of language training (8 to 5) and technical training, where we will be equipped with what we need to enter this education system and do something worthwhile. For those nine weeks we will stay with the same Ethiopian family.

It’s odd to think that this is almost the same amount of time I lived with my beloved Serukenyas in Uganda; that was a lifetime of learning and growth and sheer blessings, and yet when we leave these host families, our Peace Corps service still wouldn’t have technically begun. We are not sworn in until August 17^th, and are still considered PCTs (Peace Corps Trainees), rather than PCVs (Peace Corps Volunteers) until then.

But, man, are we excited.

Dehna hunu! We leave you with a little something from the man who came up with this idea:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOQ85OEZhWg