Exams, visitors and blowing up the curriculum

I am definitely feeling cheated today. Despite all the advance publicity there was a no show by the police guard for the KCPE exam today. Apart from that the exams went well and most of the kids sound confident about their performances. It might be a tougher day tomorrow with Science and Kiswahili papers to look forward to. The candidates are all busy revising as I type. I’m still very impressed with their whole approach to these exams.

Today was another busy day for visitors. We will have to employ a tour guide. Most of them came from Finland and are staying at the hospital up the road. A very nice young lady in the group is studying for a Masters Degree and is looking at the use and management of Ecosan latrines in Kenya. We had a good walk and talk around our site and chatted about the ways we manage the latrines and what we do with the by-products. Our visitor was pleased to see the progress that we have made in applying the compost to our maize crops.

Other members of the visitors group included an ENT doctor and a team of Kenyan dental health workers who came to do a check-up on the children’s teeth. Given the large number of children who were seen by the dental team I was pleased that only a small number of them needed any treatment. The teaching staff also took the opportunity to have their teeth checked over. One or two cavities to deal with in their case!

The exam chaos has helped us to get some work done on the farm and gave me an opportunity to make a start on planning and team building work with some of the teachers. I had a very enjoyable morning working with three teachers on some new ideas for next year. There is widespread agreement at all levels in the education system in Kenya that there is a pressing need for reform. Work has been started on looking at alternatives to current educational practises and curriculum design. It is not really clear when any reforms might be introduced – I got the impression from our staff that they are not holding their breath for rapid change. We are fortunate in being a private school. As long as the children are taught what they need to know to be successful in the KCPE exam at the end of their primary education we can organise our timetable and curriculum to match our values and priorities. It is perhaps no coincide that we have started our work on curriculum change so close to November 5th – celebrated as bonfire night in the UK. We are looking forward to having more success blowing up the curriculum than Guy Fawkes did blowing up the House of Lords in London.