Dear Ms. Burns and Class....

**Peace Corps has a project connecting volunteers with American students and I write to my best friend Carolyn's class in the Phx area about my life and work as a Peace Corps volunteer in Madagascar. I thought it might make an interesting post...a little taste of the challenges of education here. **


October 31, 2008

Dear Ms. Burns and Class,

Salama Dahoalo! (Hello All! – sa-la-ma da-hoo-loo)

I am just finishing my sixth week of school here in Madagascar. It is hard to believe that so many weeks have already gone by and yet, I feel like I have not taught near enough of the curriculum material that I am supposed to cover for the cinq-eme grade level! In the letters that you all sent me in August, many of you asked about the differences between school in the United States and in Madagascar. The answer is: they are very, very different! The challenges of education here start way up in the highest part of the government. Madagascar is one of the poorest and least developed countries in the world. The current President here, Marc Ravelomanana, has great and far reaching plans for developing the nation and making it a world trading partner, increasing industry and trade, as well as for improving education. But the issue in the developing world where money is so scarce, is that more energy is put into making money, like trade, and less into education which takes a lot of money. And honestly, there just isn't enough money here to things well.
At home, in the US, we all pay taxes to the government to ensure the workings of our country, states, counties, and cities. This money goes to everything from building and maintaining roads, ensuring clean water, sewer systems, efficient mail services, quality public education for all, the operations of government offices, as well as various social services provided by local, state, and federal government to help people. With exceptions, the United States is a very efficient and prosperous nation. Here in Madagascar, it's a fact of life that most people live without the amenities we consider as basic and necessary. Almost no one has water inside of their house, but carry it from pumps wells, rivers or lakes around their neighborhoods. Many people still live with no electricity, this means they have no refrigeration for food, they cook their meals on fires or with charcoal, and students must study by candlelight each night. There are not government resources for the poor or the hungry because that is how you would classify the majority of the population. However, I would have to say that that daily life is not a struggle for the Malagasy people, because they have been living this way for many years. They are used to it, it is normal. But life is certainly not easy.
For me, I still live a very privileged life. I have plenty of money and food to live well, electricity, medical care, a job, etc. But I spend a lot of time thinking about the “world” I will return home to the United States in a few short years, and to all the amenities that I took for granted there: my indoor plumbing and running water, electricity 24 hours a day, full kitchen, paved roads, public transit, grocery stores, and countless other things.
What I am getting at, is that education is fundamentally different because the governments and countries that the school systems operate in are so fundamentally different. I have no doubt that the government here in Madagascar is doing good work to improve the lives of the Malagasy, but there is just so much to be done that every step of development seems too little too late. In many ways it seems that the structure and way of life here is maybe 70 to 100 years behind our way of life in the United States. As a consequence, education is unfortunately not at the highest priority. Here there just isn't enough money and resources to do it right, yet.
For example at my school, there are just enough teachers to teach all the required classes, but each class has 60+ students in it! Also, there simply are not enough classrooms at my school! Every classroom is full from 6am til noon and then from 2pm until 6pm. And even with that there isn't enough classroom time to comply with the national cirriculum. For example, students need 3 hours per week to complete the annual English curriculum, ideally a two hour class to focus on lesson material and a one hour class to focus on exercises. I see each section of cinq-eme for only two hours once a week. NOT ENOUGH! It is really challenging to spend enough time teaching material and still leave time for students to get to practice the material and do activities.
Aside from not enough space and time for classes, there are literally no resources for students and teachers to utilize. Text books do not exist here. This is how students learn: for each class, students have two notebooks, an exercise cahier and a lesson cahier. Teachers write on the blackboard, the entire lesson and students copy it. Teachers write out exercises on the blackboard and students copy them and then do them. Not only is there not enough time in the week to teach with the limited classrooms available, but students are basically handwriting their own textbook which is incredibly time consuming! There is no copy machine or computer at my school. To type out additional resources and make copies for students to have is just not feasible. For me to give my students a one page copied resource it would cost me 37,000 Ariary out of my personal money, which is about 9,000 Ariary more than I spend a week on my living expenses!
Needless to say, teaching and educating students is challenging here. Also, students have been trained that when they come to class they sit, copy, do exercises and make corrections. The speak quietly when called on because it is not okay to make a mistake and many teachers will publicly ridicule a student for a mistake, with the rational that the student will never make that mistake again, remembering the humiliation. (Rule #6 of my classroom: Mistakes are okay. Everyone makes them, they are how we learn new things.) Also, these students have never been asked to do group work and activities as a way to learn, and trying to teach these tools for the first time to 12 to 16 year olds is a challenge all in itself.
The American education model is very much about creativity, problem solving and thinking skills. The Malagasy education model is unfortunately not. The Ministry of Education is supposedly changing the model of education to a more American and European model of problem solving in 2010. I think this is amazing and a right step for the Malagasy, but there are bigger problems to address before sending out the new curriculum books. Like training teachers. Very few teachers here, aside from Lycee (high school) teachers have a college education. How can the already untrained teachers of Madagascar teach a problem solving approach to learning when they themselves don't possess the skills and are not going to be given the opportunity to learn? But reprinting a curriculum and sending it to schools is more economical than prioritizing having enough classrooms, books and materials for students to reference and learn with! I whole heartedly know that the government wants to educate the students of Madagascar well, but right now it's like trying fill a bucket with a teaspoon. It's possible, but it takes a lot more work and time than it could if you could just get a cup or moved the bucket under the pump. It is the sad fact that things will continue to progress slowly in this nation because education is not given the adequate resources.
To these ends, I am trying to be positive with other teachers and talk about what we can do, like be positive and excited about education for our students. To be the best teachers we can be, prepare lessons to the best of our ability, and try to reach every student.

Keep up the good work with your studies at home!
Veloma! (Goodbye!)
Miss Whitney