Disclaimer: the first half of this post is a crash course on the Cameroonian education system. More specifically, the francophone system in Cameroon. MORE specifically, the secondary school system of the francophone regions of Cameroon. If you're already a pro at the Cameroonian francophone secondary education system, feel free to skip down to the bottom, where I've added a story of sorts for your reading enjoyment.
So, the education system! The Cameroonian system is split into four "schools", similarly to in the States. There's the ecole maternelle, or nursery school; the ecole primaire, the primary school; the ecole secondaire, the secondary school; and the lycée, the high school. My school, the Lycée de Lokoti, encompasses both the lycée and secondary school, so most people here refer to it specifically as the lycée, but generally as the secondary school. Yeah, I know. The school is further divided into grades, as in the States. I've included the grades and their US equivalents, for those of you who don't want to do the math:
Ecole Secondaire:
6eme/6th grade
5eme/7th grade
4eme/8th grade
3eme/9th grade (students take the BEPC exam to continue to high school)
Lycée:
Seconde/10th grade
Premiere/11th grade (students take the probatoire exam to continue to terminale)
Terminale/12th grade (students take the baccalaureate exam to graduate)
Keep in mind that although you can make a rough comparison to the grades in the States, the ages don't necessarily correspond at all -- for example, in my 5eme class, I've got a range of 12 or 13 year olds through 17 or 18 year olds, and my 2nde class is mostly composed of 18-20 year olds (the youngest being 16). This can be due to a number of reasons. Sometimes students start school late, or miss a year (or 3) if their family doesn't have the money to send them to school (secondary school costs 15.000cfa in Lokoti, not including the cost of the uniform, school supplies, and books -- a lot of money, especially if you're sending more than one child to school). Girls in particular are often the first be kept at home if there's not enough money to send everyone. A lot of students have to repeat grades, sometimes more than once -- unlike in the States, it is not expected that everyone in the class will pass at the end of the year. In fact, it's pretty much expected that a significant number will not pass. The size of the classes shrink from year to year, sometimes dramatically. This year, 6eme numbers somewhere in the 100+; 5eme and 4eme number in the 50s and 40s respectively, 3eme probably in the 30s. It shrinks even more after 3eme, since students have to pass the BEPC, the probatoire, and the bacc. 2nde has about 20 students. I'm not certain of the current number of 1ere and Tle students, but I was told that last year, each had about 4 students. As students move up through the grades, they're also more likely to drop out or be pulled out of school by their parents. In 3eme, 1ere, and Tle they have to pass the national exams in addition to their classes, making it that much more difficult to move on. Many students end up repeating their exam years more than once, which can add up. Additionally, education isn't always highly valued, and given the problems Cameroon has with poverty and unemployment (or underemployment), it's hard for students and parents to see why it's worth paying for an education if, regardless, the student is going to end up with a job that doesn't utilise or require it.
I promise, we're slowly getting to that story I promised you.
So teaching here is largely teacher-based. In other words, the teacher stands at the front of the class and talks or writes on the board, and the students listen and copy it down word for word. The concept of a discussion based class is almost literally unheard of (I can hear my college professors crying in the distance). Critical thinking skills aren't really a thing here -- learning is based on repetition and memorisation, and there's very little interaction with the material. This means that any interactive activity I want to do in class requires a LOT of explanation. And re-explanation. And re-explanation. And re-explanation. Sometimes the idea makes it through intact (like playing hangman to practice vocabulary words); most often, there's a lot of on-the-spot adaptation (like adjusting jeopardy to work for a class of 53 students); occasionally, we just have to let it go (like doing a class survey to practice adverbs of frequency).
In my 5eme class, we've been working on the present simple and the present continuous. For those of you who aren't quite on top of your English grammar (it's ok, I wasn't either until I came here), that's the difference between I walk (present simple) and I am walking (present continuous). The plan: to pass out magazines and have the students describe a picture and/or make a story using a mix of present simple and present continuous. So for a picture of a farmer, for example, you might write, the farmer is working on the farm. He works for 8 hours every day. He is wearing a green shirt. Green is his favourite colour. And so on. The challenge: to convey that idea to 50+ teenagers who are quite ready to be done with class. Let's do this.
The students focused pretty quickly as soon as I pulled out the magazines (a mix of NatGeo, NatGeo Kids, a Ranger Rick from the 80s, and a New Hampshire nature and fishing magazine). They focused on the magazines, of course, not on me or what I was saying, but I'll take what I can get. I first explained it slowly in English. "Does everyone understand?" "NO, MA-DAME." Ok, in French this time. "Est-ce que tout a compris? Levez le main comme ce si vous avez compris, comme ce si vous n'avez pas compris." Raise your hand like this (thumbs up) if you understood, like this (thumbs down) if you didn't. I get a handful of thumbs up, a handful of thumbs down. "Ok, encore." This time, at least most of the thumbs are up. Each group gets a magazine, and the kids go nuts. In a good way! They were so excited just to flip through the pages and look at the pictures -- I had to remind them a few times that they still had an assignment. As I wandered around, as per usual, somebody from each group stopped me and told me they didn't understand the assignment (despite having been among those with their thumbs up). Fourth time's the charm. I re-explain it to each individual group. "Aaaahhhh, ok Madame, je comprends." I make my rounds, stopping occasionally to make corrections. No, you're not just writing random sentences -- I know you already know how to say 'I walk to the market'. I want you to write about the picture. No, you're not just copying sentences from the text next to the picture. Yes, I know you're copying because you're writing fragmented sentences and they don't make sense. Also, I am almost positive that if you don't know the word frog, you probably don't know the word amphibious.
I'm called over to explain to a group for the third time. Finally, I point at a picture.
"What is this?"
"Le lion!"
"And how do you say that in English?" Their eyes lit up -- they know this one. "LION!"
"Yes! Good! So what is the lion doing in the picture? Qu'est-ce que il fait?" You could see the comprehension dawning on them.
"Il dort," they chorused.
"And in English?"
"Sleep!" someone said.
"Ah, but in present simple or present continuous?" This one stumped them.
"It is sleep!" "It sleep!" "It sleeping!" "It is sleeping!"
"YES!" I point to the last speaker. "Say it again."
"It! Is! Sleeping!" they all join in.
"Good! Now write it down!" I encourage them. They scramble for their pens. Soon, hands are going up around the room.
"Madame! Qu'est-ce que c'est en anglais?" (What is this in English?)
"Madame, comment dit-on "cultivateur" en anglais?" (How do you say "farmer" in English?)
"Madame! How do you spell crocodile?"
I don't want to give you the wrong idea about how my classes usually go -- this was by FAR my most successful activity so far. A more typical class consists of a lot of me struggling to keep everyone's attention, or struggling to explain concepts using my limited French skills (or, often, both). When I ask for thumbs-up-or-down-if-you-understand, I frequently get more thumbs down than thumbs up. Teaching is a constant challenge -- more than up days or down days, teaching is composed of up minutes and down minutes. I spend my classes trying to keep my students quiet, trying to get them to pay attention, trying to get them to sit down, trying to get them to use critical thinking skills -- every now and again I actually fit some teaching in there.
But, in the end, it's my blog, and I could pretend that every day runs like this if I wanted to, because nobody will be able to contradict me. So there!
