Examination

I am writing this post as light relief from 7 solid days of typing exam questions. I lost the will to live only a few times but all within the last 3 days. 

By the way, as I sit here I am listening to the latest call from our mosque. I did hear that attendance there is poor and that rather than calling people to prayer, the Imam just preaches over the loudspeaker system, which is pointed towards my house. As it is in Dagaare, I assume, I cannot understand what he is saying, and if I describe any more I shall be accused of something detrimental, so I shall halt. The feedback from the speakers is bad this week, particularly this morning at 5am when a child was reading from the Koran. 

So, back to the exams.……..By law, every child in a GES Primary School must sit end of term exams in at least 7 subjects. The teachers set them based on what they have taught during each term. As the attendance of some teachers is dire they have taught very little and have the audacity to complain about writing the questions. The quality of many teachers’ English is poor so I have been rewriting a large number of these papers. Those whose attendance is deplorable try to set tests based on a single unit of work hoping short-sightedly that nobody will notice and the children will score well.

The children in most classes will not be able to read them and the answers are, as required by the education office, predominantly multiple choice. We will hope that the teachers can read them and that the pupils have a slim chance of making an accurate stab at a few correct answers. I am expecting a few of the very least committed teachers to suggest that, as I wrote the questions on their papers, maybe I should mark them too! If I ever felt the necessity to use a cane…… something used frequently here………….I would be aiming it at the teachers who blatantly show no concern whatsoever for the pupils under their care.

God bless these children, their dedicated headteachers who have no effective sanctions against their idle staff and the responsible teachers working hard within an extremely frustrating and difficult education system. I award them 10/10 at least !!!