One of the safest principles to adopt is “sticking with the knitting” –
in our case making sure that the children get taught appropriately, using
materials suitable for their age and ability. It’s not really rocket science by
any stretch of the imagination. We are about to undertake a curriculum review
so I thought I’d get a bit of head start by looking at the Standard 1 revision
to get a better idea of what is expected from them. This led to an interesting
diversion when I discovered that Microsoft Word is able to work out the
readability of text that you type into it. (To turn it on click on the spelling
and grammar tool, then options and select show readability statistics). Tonight’s post has a Flesch reading ease
rating of 53.3% and a Flesch-Kincaid level of 10.8. This makes it fairly
difficult to read and, (optimistically), readable by 50% of adults. I don’t
plan to dumb it down any time soon.
This discovery was prompted by the contents of the Standard 1 revision
encyclopaedia, in particular the exercises in the Social Studies section. Most
of our Standard 1 pupils come from very poor backgrounds. They have just
finished in what would be a reception class in England. They are very young. You
might like to try these activities with children that you know who are in Year
1. Questions on the topic of Our School
include:
7. Pupils at school go to assembly on _______ and ___________.
8. Name the various people found in your school.
11. What is the work of a prefect in a class? ______________________
13. Why do we have rules at school? _____________________
21. What is the work of a clerk? __________________________
And my favourite
24. _________ is where teacher meet to talk more about school.
It’s always good to have high expectations for pupils !
It’s also good to know that the scourge of cheating in public exams is
being dealt with severely. Cheating is notoriously rampant in schools in Kenya. After
the public exams in November the newspapers are full of stories about schools
and pupils who have managed to find some way of gaining an edge in the exams,
(usually by buying a copy of the paper and mark scheme before the pupils sit
the exam). On the back page of today’s Daily Nation there was a short report on
the government’s latest proposals for anybody caught cheating in public exams.
These measures will be discussed and, according to the Nation, ideally come
into law in time for this November’s exams. Anyone caught cheating will face a
10 year jail term or a 10 million shilling fine. Now that’s what I call direct
action.
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