September 30, 2007
I go through the roller coaster of emotions while I do my work here in Africa. I say a roller coaster of emotions because, as my wife Debbie and I experience each dawning day, the many and sometimes difficult challenges of everyday life here. One day you see the children going to school with excitement and anticipation in their eyes, or being perfectly content and delightfully happy by making toy “trucks” or “boats” out of empty sardine cans pulled by a “string” made from a palm frond. Those are the emotional highs.
The next day, or moment, you get so frustrated because when we go to our perspective schools to teach those same children, they do not have books to help them learn, resources to teach them, or also in my case, working computers to use when I teach my computer courses. There are as many as 100-120 students to a class. The classrooms are barren with the exception of bench-desks that are meant for 2 kids but they have to sit 3 or 4 children on one desk because of a lack of them. Electricity in a room that does not require or need it for the class taught is not installed. The light for the room is the natural light that comes through the windows. Toilets for the school consist of stalls with brick walls and a concrete floor that has a hole in it so you squat over an open pit. Then there is the corporal punishment dished out at the schools, which is worse than you would treat a rabid dog.
Some of the things I have been frustrated about: I have about 98 students in my Form 3 class. These are kids between the ages of 14 and 17. Age doesn’t matter here as far as school class is concerned. Many of them drop out for a year or two during their educational experience to help the family earn money to eat and pay rent. The money to go to school is of secondary concern and is far down on the budget list. When they have enough money to go back to school they re-enroll for the year and pay the fees for that year. So they may be 14, which is the “proper” age for Form 3 (equivalent to a freshman in high school), or they may be as old as 17 years of age. It is not that they do not value school, quite on the contrary; education is a highly valued privilege in all of Africa, as it is in Cameroon.
When they are in school, it is very regimented and teaching techniques are antiquated. Typically a teacher stands in front of the class reading the notes from his/her lesson plan and writing the important points on the blackboard, as the students diligently transcribe into the notebooks they have for each subject they are enrolled in. The syllabus is dictated by the ministry of education in Yaoundé, right down to the type of exam that is given as the final exam, and mandates the subject matter that is taught and covered for the year. The problem is of course that the people in the ministry of education are so far removed from the educational process here in the schools, and corruption is so bad, that teachers are handicapped without any tools. Right down to a lack of chalk for writing on the boards!
We have to purchase our own box of chalk and erasers for our classes. Again, this is where Debbie and I are a little fortunate, since we teach in a private and not a public school, our administration gives us the first 20 pieces of chalk for the year. It crumbles as you use it to the point that you end up using one piece in a day, but you save the pieces and use them until they are so small you can’t hang onto them. But none the less we get 20 pieces. We are also given an eraser for the year. Typically these are rags bunched up and sown with a cover that resembles a pillow that fits in your hand.
Books are non-existent, and if you have a lot of information that you want to give to your class, you might print one copy of it in the administrative secretary’s office with paper you purchase yourself, then give it to the class “president” (here each class has a “class prefect” as they are called in the Anglophone area of Cameroon where Debbie and I are. In the Francophone area of Cameroon they are called “Chef de Classe”, or Chief of the Class. We would say maybe class president). All the students who can afford the 100CFA per copy, chip in their own money, and send a class representative to the local copy shop to have copies made for all the kids who paid. If the child can’t afford that, they use one of the copies to transcribe it into their notebooks. These notebooks that the kids write in become their textbooks and/or workbooks that they use to study from and learn their lessons. They will typically keep these notebooks for years and refer to them two or three years afterwards as their own text books.
If a teacher decides to use one of the approved text books or workbooks that are available, they announce it to the class within the first week of the school year, but then the students have to go and buy the books which may or may not be available at the various book stores. In some cases they may have to travel to one of the larger cities to find the books. Most of the time a teacher realizes that demanding a book is futile and will use the mandated syllabus and lecture it to the class so the students can transcribe the lesson into their notebooks.
There are several effects of the educational system that you see immediately as a result of this archaic method of teaching. One is that you have kids in form 2 and 3 (between the ages of 12 and 17) that cannot write complete sentences or even organize complete strings of thoughts properly. English grammatical structure is so poor for several reasons; even though we are in the Anglophone area of Cameroon, the common language used throughout Cameroon is Pidgin, though it is not the “official” language of the country. French and Oxford English are the two “official” languages depending on where you live. But most people in all areas of Cameroon speak Pidgin as their first language. Then, depending on what tribe you are from you would speak your tribal language (of which there are 270 plus tribal languages) as your secondary language. After those languages you would speak one of the “official” languages depending on what province you live in. Two of the ten provinces are Anglophone, of which Debbie and I live in one of those provinces – the Southwest province. The Northwest province is the other Anglophone area. Both of these provinces speak Oxford English. The whole rest of Cameroon is Francophone where French is spoken.
The result of this dual language system is, the concept of proper grammatical structure is so foreign of an idea because the language used daily from the time you are born, has no defined structure (Pidgin or the tribal languages). Also the only time “grammar” English, as it is referred to here, is spoken, is when you are in school or in a business setting, depending on the level of education of the person you are speaking to. Even in a business setting Pidgin is commonly used. Hence the concept of grammatical structure is lost.
Another effect of the educational system is, since there is a lack of textbooks or workbooks, studying the lessons taught that day or week, be they English, math, science, history, geography, computers etcetera, is nearly impossible. If there were proper books to take home and study with, or workbooks to use, as our educational system in the U.S. has, these kids would progress at a better pace. When you compare the 5 year olds Debbie taught in Nashville to the 12 year olds she is teaching here in Cameroon, they are almost at the same level of education! In some cases the five year olds might have a better grasp of language or spelling than that of the 12 year olds in Debbie’s English class!
The conditions of the structures and classrooms can be dealt with fairly easily. What I have the most difficult time with is the corporal punishment that is doled out continuously during the day. Every school has a “discipline master” that is part of the administration. The discipline master is responsible for doling out the proper punishment for infractions of the rules that are rigorously enforced. Most of that punishment is in the form of some type of manual labor performed by the student being disciplined. This could be sweeping the floors, cleaning classrooms or some other type of maintenance. However, corporal punishment is also used on many occasions along with the manual labor. Every discipline master carries a rubber hose, or in the case in my school, a wire cable folded in half that the child is literally beaten with depending on the infraction committed. I can’t stand this. I don’t know what my emotions will force me to do when I see this.
Let me give you an example of something that happened on the first day I taught in my school: I was teaching the Form 3 kids. I was in the middle of my lesson the discipline master entered my room with a pair of scissors in his hand. He grabbed the first child he saw that HE thought had too shabby of a haircut, grabbed his head with one hand and proceeded to chop away a stripe of hair down the middle of his head with the scissors! Talk about intimidation and all manners of unbridled force!! He went to the next child, inspected his head like he was an animal ready to be shorn, and when he found another person that he felt was too shabby, cut a swath on that head. The girls were treated as the boys. Like animals, or worse!! As if they were sheep that had to be shorn!!
I got so angry and very emotional, but I couldn’t “do” anything right then and there. All I could do was watch. And suffer. I almost cried in the room, so I had to leave the room and relieve myself of the tears that welled up in my eyes. Then I got so angry. Talking to the discipline master while he is in front of the kids, and telling him I will not permit that type of act in my room, would have caused chaos. So when he left I went after him.
I was enraged and I told him I will not allow that type of discipline in my room. I told him I NEVER want to see him in my class again, and if he does come to my class he must not come with his wire switch which he carries around like a prison guard might carry a night stick, or any other instrument he uses to discipline the kids. Monday evening when I got home I could only crawl into bed and cry. I was hurting for those kids, whose only infraction was that the discipline master felt their hair was shabby and they needed a haircut. To realize the full breadth of this, the kids have their heads shorn extremely short as is mandated by the schools. Both males and females have the same haircut. You can see the pictures posted in the album section. The kids that got their hair clipped didn’t look so bad to me, but their hair wasn’t short enough or too shabby for the discipline master. I can hardly write this without crying some more.
The beatings they get from the discipline master, and some teachers alike, are insane. Some teachers, about 50% in my school, carry a rubber hose or strong stick and literally beat the kids. Corporal punishment is acceptable in Cameroon. I can’t condone this, but I don’t know what to do. The Peace Corps has some guidelines on this, but nothing of substance that changes the attitude.
I am happy to tell you that Debbie and I had a great discussion with the proprietor of our schools about the corporal punishment we have been witnessing with the students. He got furious to say the least! He immediately called both principles of the schools (this was while he and his wife were visiting us last night at 10:00pm) and he told them he wanted to see them at that moment at his house. It seems he has had a directive that corporal punishment is totally unacceptable in his schools. Let’s just say that Debbie and I felt very good about his reaction to it.
The next morning the proprietor of our schools gathered all the teachers and administration together and personally handed each of them a letter about his discipline policy. In that letter it was stated that you can discipline with love with greater results than with a stick. When you discipline with love the child will listen and stop offending because s/he wants to please the person that displays love rather than from the fear of being beaten with the rod. He further went on to say that if he hears any more reports of this type of discipline in his schools he will personally dismiss the person who makes the infraction. He fired a teacher last year over this very same subject.
The reaction and steps our proprietor took is atypical of Cameroonian teaching methods. Some of the stories the other Peace Corps volunteers tell make my hair stand on end. Corporal punishment is not only condoned by the government of Cameroon, but in some schools actually encouraged!
When I was so upset about discipline the actions I have seen, I appreciate some words Debbie had for me when I told her what I have been seeing. She said that she talked to her classes about getting beaten. She told them flatly that they will not be beaten by her. That no one will be beaten in the class. She told me that one time they were talking about this, and the students thought it was so strange that she did not and would not beat them. When she came into the class one morning after the previous teacher finished his class, and the kids started being rowdy and noisy, she shouted at them that she had a question for them. Then after they quieted down to listen to her, she said: “How come when I am waiting outside the door for your other class to be finished you are so attentive and quiet for the teacher before me, but after he leaves, and I come in, you are so noisy and misbehaving?” They said in unison: “Because we know you won’t beat us like the other teacher”. That is when she had a discussion with her class about punishment versus beating.
The kids asked how the children in the U.S. were punished if they did something wrong, and she explained to them about taking away some type of privilege. Then Debbie was sitting next to a student, took a ruler off the student’s desk and raised it very quickly like she was going to hit that person. The instinct was for the child to flinch and cower. Debbie stopped with her hand raised, and said: “that is what I will never do to you”. It was a very powerful message she sent to the class. For me I will not permit corporal punishment or intimidation to happen in front of me, and so I had a similar discussion with my students.
Some of this is so sad and even depressing as I write about it. So many times I ask myself if I am doing any good here. Why am I here? What propelled me to give away all my worldly possessions, leave my dear family and friends behind and come to a third world country for two years, exposing myself to an untold number of diseases and risks to aide other people? It seems every Peace Corps volunteer goes through this, what is referred to as “the roller coaster of emotions”.
Despite all of this, there is a sense of progress and change in the air. There are many people that want to change the system, attitudes and mentalities of the educational system here in Cameroon.
One of those people is the proprietor of the schools Debbie and I work at. He created these schools because he saw the deficiency of the public school system which he taught economics in for 20 years. In his words I quote from a paper he presented: “The Tiko Sub Division in Cameroon where the Common Initiative Group (CIG) - CEPET is located is suffering from the worst of humanity’s plaque, i.e. Ignorance, Poverty and Disease. They virtually form a vicious cycle; each one sparking the other. A careful analysis of these problems, however, shows that ignorance is the worst of them. Anybody living in this society, even with a heart of stone, cannot afford to be insensitive to the cry of the inhabitants.
As if the above problems are not enough, the situation is further compounded by a very high level of youth unemployment as school graduates do not find adequate work for most of those that have passed through our traditional educational system.” – Mr. Stephen Mbu, Proprietor IMPASS _STARMOTEC Schools.
He wrote a book on economics that sold very well about 8 years ago, and with the money he got from that book, founded the Imperial Academy of Arts and Science, or IMPASS as it is called. It is a secondary school or, high school as we would refer to it. I have posted some pictures of that school also. About three years after that first school was up and running he started another school called Starmotec, or a technical trade high school where kids can learn a skilled trade such as plumbing, carpentry, bricklaying, metal work, electricity, culinary arts, fashion and tailoring and computer technology. The idea behind this school is to emphasize the skilled trades so the students can learn a practical employable trade. This was meant to stem the ignorance and unemployment thus reducing disease and poverty.
The only funds he gets is the tuition of 55,000CFA (about $110.00 per year) charged to the student to attend. There are a total of about 1400 students between the two campuses, so with the math that comes to a budget of about 77,000,000CFA ($154,000.00) per year. (Many students are on “scholarships” (about 5%) because he knows that are serious students and they can’t afford the money for tuition. He funds them from his own pockets which are not very deep. He has gotten some funding in cash donations and equipment donations from various non-profit organizations over the past 6 years, but these are usually “band aids” to cover hemorrhages.
The private schools in Cameroon are usually the best systems and create the best educated people of Cameroon. Many of them are sponsored by churches of the various faiths here, i.e.: Catholic, Presbyterian, Baptist or the such, and though they have strong educational institutes, produce well educated students and are typically well funded, they have their own agenda with the perspective religion doctrine emphasized more than the academic subjects required for employable solutions. This is another way Debbie and I are fortunate, being assigned to this private institute.
There are a number of volunteers in our Peace Corps class of 2007-2009 that are in one of the church run private schools. At those institutes they have classrooms that more resemble classrooms in the states or Europe, which are well equipped and well managed because their budgets are so large. However, in the schools like ours, private lay schools, is where the need is greatest. The lay schools are the ones who try to evolve the teaching philosophy and modernize the Cameroonian educational system. When these private lay schools are well funded and can be competitive for strong academics it pushes the state system to evolve and change. This is where I feel my mission is. This is where I feel I can make an impact. This is why I want to create a foundation, first for our school, then for Cameroon, then for other similar schools in Africa.
As I have said, I know this is long, and maybe a little “windy”, but I hope it gives you a big picture of education life here.
I would like to figure out some way of sustainability for the things I do here. It is time to stop the band-aids and teach the Cameroonians how to sustain themselves. I believe it can start with a foundation to boot-strap these private lay schools and get them on more solid ground with well funded institutes that can compete with the European or American model, since those are the schools that the Cameroonian government pays attention to.
Our real dilemma is not so much money as it is getting used computers and/or parts here for use. New computers are extremely expensive by Cameroonian standards, and when you are dealing with the private schools like Debbie and I are assigned to, the cost of equipping a computer lab of 24 computers for 400 students is more than the budget to run the school for a year. The school budget for the year is about $80,000.00, and 24 new computers for the 400 students in my class would cost about $26,000.00. Adding in the cost of a printer, network hub etcetera and the cost of the lab is over $30,000.00.
Right now, at my school I have 24 computers in the lab, of which only 20 are operable at any one time. These computers are recycled from companies which have replaced them when they have upgraded their infrastructure, and many of them are between 8-10 years old. My newest computer is about 5 years old. Half of them are so old that they can only run Windows 98 on them, and when they breakdown I won’t even be able to find spare parts for them!
What we do here, is go to a computer store in Douala, which is a half of a day’s car ride in one direction, and buy used computers at a computer store. These computers might be Pentium 2 or Pentium 3 CPU’s in a variety of conditions and we try to make working computers out of them. These cost about $350.00 each, are 4-5 years old, and out of every ten CPU’s you buy there may be 8 fully working computers. These stores buy recycled computers from Europe and the States and do minor cosmetic refurbishing to them so they look presentable for sale in the store.
The other part of our trip to Douala might be taken up with hunting down old used hard disks, used memory or used parts to replace parts not working in some of the computers in the lab. Buying the used computers at $350.00 each is only done as a “last resort” because of the cost, and would only be purchased if we have less than 20 working computers in the lab. We try to maintain 20 working computers because when the kids come for their 50 minute class lessons, the 40-48 students per lab will double or triple up on one machine to do their practical session. They are very accustomed to this and feel fortunate if there are only two of them per computer.
Hence my idea of a foundation. There are many individuals that have been following Debbie’s and my Peace Corps service through our blog, who write to us and ask how they can help. They are more than willing to donate their companies recycled computers, computer parts and/or money to aide our situation here in Cameroon, but would prefer to do it through some type of charitable organization. I have done a bit of research on organizations, and there are many of them that will do a variety of aide programs, but usually restrict the donations to Cameroonian government agencies or entities to handle the distribution of aide. The problem with that is; there is so much corruption within the government that only about 30% of the aide actually given reaches the entities it is intended for.
The private schools and the private run health or aide organizations here in Cameroon don’t get anything from the Cameroon Government, yet they are the very organizations that are really making any kind of impact or difference here. Some of these private organizations are created by Individual Cameroonians, like the proprietor of our school, who sink every last coin they might have accumulated in their lifetime into the institutions they create. The sustainability comes from the job they do to raise funds, equipment or supplies for the organization.
The proprietor of the two schools Debbie and I teach at, for example, got the initial donation of the computers for the two computer labs, one lab at Debbie’s school and one at mine, from the British consulate office in Cameroon. A total of 48 computers of various ages and condition where donated in 2004 to create the computer lab. This project was also sponsored by the Peace Corps which placed volunteers here to teach the kids and teach the teachers computer skills. So now that it is 2007 almost 2008, the old recycled computers are starting to suffer because of their age.
I feel that if a non-profit organization could “feed” resources to these agencies in Cameroon where the Peace Corps is involved, it would be a big asset to the Cameroonian people as a whole. Once that type of aide helps these honest and legitimate organizations get their feet solidly planted on the ground, they are capable of not only maintaining the entity, but growing it. The Peace Corps only gets involved with organizations that are capable of demonstrating sustainability and are legitimized through a thorough check by Peace Corps headquarters, Washington.
So, I am sorry to make this so lengthy and long-winded, but I feel this is one way I can leave “footprints” behind when Debbie and I are finished with our service. So if you know of any individuals, companies or organizations in the states that have equipment, supplies, or resources to donate, let me know. I know of many current Peace Corps volunteers currently serving here in Cameroon, that have had shipping containers of donations sent to them at their posts so they can get their projects going. I have several projects here that I am getting involved with that will have those same needs.
Best to all of you for this time