A quick update before the New Year

I have been doing a lot of thinking about what we have accomplished in the project this year and all that we hope to do in the year to come, but those thoughts are not yet quite formulated enough for the blog...stay tuned.

The best news at the library this week is that we are finally on the electric grid! This is especially fantastic given that our first donated computers are arriving next week.

The library itself was quiet this week with the kids on break, but we still saw at least 10 students a day coming in to read and draw. We are starting to see kids from more and more schools, including a whole table of boys who came in this week from one of the local Koranic schools. They sing when reading out loud, a skill they learn while memorizing the Koran, which sounds really cool even if it does not improve their reading comprehension.

We tried to take advantage of the quiet week to do some administrative tasks, but ran up against some of the complexities of dealing with various layers of the Malian bureaucracy. We try to deal with the ensuing frustration with patience, and by chalking it up to a learning experience. The next time we need to get something out of customs without paying exorbitant fees we will be ready.

Finally, just to remind you we work with real children and young people who face complex challenges, yesterday we received food at the library because one of our 9th grade students was getting married. We have many students in the 9th grade who are 18 or older, but this girl is not one of them. Education is a tool that can help Malian girls achieve greater equality in their relationships and more control over their lives and those of their future children. We hope that this marriage will not put a halt to our student's education, but the outlook is not good.

Christmas Week Update

This week was the last week before Christmas break and the last of the first trimester, so our 6th - 9th grade students had exams. We saw many students coming into the library for a quiet place to study, and a few even came to tell me they thought they'd done well on their English exam. We also continued to see an increase in kids from other neighborhood schools coming to visit the library and use our resources, including these two girls.

Ana, the one on the right, likes to hold books open in front of her and “read aloud” by either making up her own stories in Bambara or reciting one of her French texts from school. She also likes to ask librarians to read books aloud to her. We hope she'll be coming in a lot more in the new year.

In other news, our new shipment of books has arrived from the US, but is currently tied up in customs. I spent several hours this week between the post office and customs headquarters moving from office to office trying to find the person who could explain how to get the “exoneration” everyone assured us should be “no problem” to get. We believe we have finally figured out the proper procedure and the right person to expedite it, so the books should be in our possession by the end of next week, inchallah.

Finally, as we prepare to celebrate Christmas in Bamako, I want to tell you that I have been amazed by your generosity towards the project. Thanks to you, we have raised over four thousand dollars, which will go a long way for the project in 2012 and beyond. To everyone who donated, thank you for believing in our students' potential and in the work we do. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas, Happy rest of Chanukah, Happy belated Winter Solstice, or whatever other celebrations you have in mind.

Cours Privés

I realized that in all the excitement over the library, we have almost completely forgotten to mention that our cours privés (private classes) program is also up and running. We have French classes for the 7th-9th grade running here at Maourou Diarra, and, even more exciting, Math and Science for the 9th graders at Saint Pierre, the other middle school in our cluster.

When I first started envisioning this project, I was hesitant about the idea of including these classes because it felt a lot like SAT prep and it seemed like this couldn't possibly be one of the key educational needs of the neighborhood. But, as we've discussed earlier on this blog, the DEF exams our students take after the 9th grade are about as critical as they come. A good score the first time around means a government paid education at a good high school. Multiple failures most likely means an education that ends in 9th grade. Many parents pay for expensive cours privés to better prepare their kids for these tests, but such classes are out of reach for the vast majority of Niamakoro families.

The Niamakoro Education Project's cours privés offer free, quality instruction to interested students to help them catch up on concepts they haven't yet grasped and prepare them for some of the most important sections of the DEF. On Saturday I stopped by Saint Pierre to get these pictures of math class. Our math teacher, Fidel, is an incredibly bright soon-to-be first year medical student. He is great with the students and it is clear they already respect him. We believe that improved DEF scores will be one tangible measure of the NEP's impact.

Don't forget, you have the opportunity to support this mission by donating. Just $75 pays for an entire month of these classes. Visit http://www.niamakoro-education.org/donate for more information!

The Gift of Books

'Tis the season for holiday giving. We could just try the cute child strategy and show you this picture of Tonton, our youngest kindergartener. How could you resist buying him more markers?

But really, the reasons to donate to support our work go beyond Tonton tugging at your heartstrings. If you've been reading this blog, you already know the situation our students face. To remind you, we work in the country with the worst recorded literacy rate in the world (fewer than 1 in 4 Malian adults can read and write), where thousands of children never go to school, and those who do see the inside of a classroom face massive overcrowding, teachers with little or no training, and an education system that is, at best, outdated. For girls, the situation is even worse, with fewer than 1 in 5 literate Malian women and the country's recent rating as the 5th worst place on earth to be born female.

One of the great, if often heart wrenching, things about our project is that it gives us a window into these issues on the very human scale of the students we see every day. I am currently watching a 9th grader slowly make his way through a book designed to teach reading to preschoolers. This same student often comes to help me in the library when his teachers show up late to class, often by more than an hour. When he is in class, he sits with around 60 other students in a dark room. If he doesn't pass the exams looming at the end of the year, he will most likely never go to high school.

The good news though, is that we also see the flip side. In the three weeks since we opened the library, this same student has come to read almost every day. He has almost finished his book and yesterday he translated an entire sentence from English to French by himself (English is a main subject on his crucial exams). Rokia, one of our  8th graders, is consistently blowing us away with her English skills and is extremely generous in helping her classmates. The school's guard has three children who come to the library every single day at lunch. Neither of their parents went to school, they cannot speak French, and they certainly cannot read. Granted, the kids often practice their karate moves instead of reading (see picture) until I use my limited Bambara to get them sitting down, but they show a genuine love of the books that is shared by almost every student at the school. The youngest one is starting to improve his letter recognition, even as he continues his mischievous antics.

The relatively small acts we accomplish, and which your donation can support, are having a big impact on the 450 or so students at this school.  We see it every day and you've heard many of the stories on this blog. Aminata who “comes to read the books” starting now in 1st grade has a better chance of rewriting her future as a woman in Mali. Ousmane has more chances to improve his vocabulary and his French, to pass his exams and to go on to become a journalist and tell the world more about what matters to him.

What it comes down to is this: if you donate to us this Holiday Season you will help...

• Employ 5 intelligent, motivated, educated Malians who are taking this chance to change their community.
• Give the 450 students at Maourou Diarra (and their friends from the neighborhood who come to the library) access to more books, more windows on the world, more words to speak and write, more chances to express themselves, and more opportunities to be well informed.
• Bring more individual attention and creative learning opportunities to children who desperately need it.
• ...and buy Tonton some new markers.

If you give as a gift for someone else, we would be thrilled provide you a card with a picture of some of the kids you have helped in their name and an explanation of what we do. It is an amazing gift. Just send us an email at contact@niamakoro-education.org, and we'll send you back a personalized card within 48 hours. Be sure to include their name in the body of the email, and if you have any other specific instructions, include those too and we'll do our best to accommodate.

Thank you, and happy holidays!

Last week at the library and....website launch!!

It has been another solid week of literacy activities, English lessons, drawing and reading at the library. The big revelation of the week was definitely the markers, though we've had to limit their use after several of them walked away during free-use hours on Tuesday. I wish I could show you the work of one of our 9^th graders who was drawing incredible scenes out of some of our books.

You can see a many examples of the beautiful gifts we've received this week in the background of our brand new, beautiful website! Check us out at: http://www.niamakoro-education.org/

The most popular literacy activity of the week was definitely the “Alphabet Olympics,” a series of short games (we got through two this week and plan to revisit this activity often) that reinforce knowledge of letters and sounds and work on French vocabulary. One highlight of my week was the fact that one team of 4^th graders came up with 8 words starting with “b” and one of them was bibliothèque (library).

We are definitely starting to build a routine and the students are rapidly adapting to library procedures. There is a group of 9^th graders who have started helping out during particularly busy hours reminding the younger children in Bambara to make sure they check their book out at the desk before they start reading and helping manage the line of kids waiting for a space at the door. It is as awesome to see them taking that kind of ownership of the space as it is to see them coming in to read on their own.

Essays from Ousmane Bathily - 9 th Grade

We would like to introduce you to Ousmane Bathily, one of our 9th grade students. He is interested in becoming a journalist so we asked him to write about his life to share here on the blog. The French is his own and the English is my translation with some minor changes made for flow. He would like to write more articles, so if you have any suggestions for subjects, please add them in the comments and we'll let him know. So here it is, Ousmane Bathily's first by-lines:

Maourou Diarra

Maourou Diarra est un école située dans un quartier moins riche appelé Niamakoro. Dans ce quartier les habitants sont fatigués et rencontrent des difficultés, non seulement la pauvreté, mais aussi une manque d'eau et d'électricité. Il n'y que peu de robinets que l'on ne rencontre seulement dans grandes rues. Maourou Diarra est un Cour privé. Elle est composée de petite section à 9ème année. D'après les autres classes il y a deux 9èmes, 9ème A et B, une salle d'informatique et une salle bibliothèque un projet amené par les américains pour aider les élèves à mieux parler et écrire la langue anglaise et française. Elle n'a pas un très bon entourage ni toilette et chaque classe compte plus de 45 élèves mais malgré tout les élèves débrouillent bien.

(English translation):
Maourou Diarra is a school located in a poorer neighborhood called Niamakoro. In this neighborhood, residents are weary and encounter many difficulties, not only poverty, but also a lack of water and electricity. There are only a few water taps and they can only be found in the larger streets. Maourou Diarra is a private school. It is made up of classes from kindergarten to 9th grade. After the other classes there are two 9th grades, 9th A and 9th B,  and a computer room and library brought by an American project to help the students speak and write better in French and English. It is not in a very nice area, there are no toilets and each class has more than 45 students, but in spite of all this the students manage well.


Village

Mon village s'appelle Moussala du nom de son fondateur Moussa Maniat Bathily, grand chasseur originaire de Lany Toinla. Il se situe sur la rive gauche du fleuve Sénégal à 35km de Kayes à l'ouest. Selon mes grands parents, Moussala n'a subit aucun changement toutes les formes aux temps jadis seulement de sa création à nos jours il s'est diviser en deux: et cela due au phénomène naturel érosion fluvial qui détruit plusieurs maisons. Mais aux fils années, par le courage l'honneur et la solidarité des habitants des nouvelles constructions se succédèrent à 100m de Moussala d'où le nom Moussala Moderne.

Les évènements les plus marquants sont les suivants. La bataille de Diyalla Khoslo et la succession de Moussa Maniat. Quand ElHadji Oumar répandait l'Islam lors de son passage pour le pèlerinage à la Mecque. Il négocia avec les trois frères braves guerriers de son village: Moussa Mariat Khanson d'accord pour détruire Diyalla Khaso et le soumettre à l'Islam. Ainsi Diyallo Khoslo fut capturé et soumi à l'Islam. Après cette bataille Moussa Maniat tomba gravement malade pui va mourir étant en promenade. La mort le problème de successions le posa entrainent aussi une guerre fratercide entre ces deux fils:Yougou-Siné et Séré-Sackée.

Actuellement mon village compte 4 quartiers: Bathily-Kamy, Nodi-Kany, Kamoudou-Kany et Kochén pholé. Comme aujourd'hui des trois y sont élaborées et il n'y aura pas de conflits. Chacun se montre généreux.

(English translation):
My village is called Moussala, named for its founder Moussa Maniat Bathily, a great hunter from Lany Toinla. It is located on the left bank of the Senegal River 35km west of Kayes. According to my grandparents, Moussala had not changed at all between its creation and the present except that it was divided in two and that was because of a natural phenomenon, river erosion, that destroyed several houses. But over time, through the courage, honor, and solidarity of the residents, new construction occurred 100m from Moussala, which explains the name Moussala Moderne (modern Moussala).

The most significant events for the village were the battle of Diyalla Khoslo and the succession of Moussa Maniat. When ElHadji Oumar spread Islam after his pilgirmage to Mecca he negotiated with three brothers from his village who were brave warriors. Moussa Mariat Khanson agreed to destroy Diyalla Khoslo and force it to submit to Islam. Thus Diyalla Khoslo was destroyed and converted to Islam. After this battle, Moussa Mariat fell gravely ill and died before returning home. His death created a succession conflict and led to a fratricidal war between his two sons: Yougou-Siné and Séré-Sackée.

Today, my village has 4 neighborhoods:  Bathily-Kamy, Nodi-Kany, Kamoudou-Kany et Kochén Pholé. There will be no more conflict, each is a generous place.

Week Two at the Library

Saturday morning at the library after a very busy but gratifying second week of operations. We managed to finalize our schedule and we had to make the rule that once there are no more seats in the library you have to wait outside until someone leaves. In such situations there is an hour time limit on library time.

I wish I had the camera with me this morning when we had to put that rule into effect at 8:05 (the library opens at 8) because so many students from the St Pierre School (one of the other schools in the same cluster as our home school) had come to read. But here are a couple pictures from free time earlier in the week.

Spending more time at school is giving us more time to interact with and observe the teachers as well. It's amazing how easy it is to pick up on which teachers are more respected rather than feared. This tends to correspond with the teachers who come with their classes to the library and take advantage of the opportunity to check up on their students' level. On the other hand, I don't think I am ever going to get used to hearing teachers from the first grade on up to the ninth shouting "Imbécile!" at their students. Robert pointed out that I actually appeared to be noticing and caring if the students in my English classes were learning something, an interest he feels most teachers here don't have. Granted, it's a lot easier to check in with each student when there are 17 and not 60 in a room.

The big thing at the library this week was the start of literacy activities for the elementary school classes and extra English lessons for the middle schoolers. For the moment I am leading these activities under the observation of the librarians who will take over after Christmas break. We played alphabet bingo in the 3rd grade, which mostly revealed that only a handful of the 3rd graders know their alphabet, but they enjoyed the game and asked to play again next week. The 9th graders worked on a text about Thanksgiving, which made us all hungry and led to a lot of laughs as I tried to explain American football beyond "it's kind of like rugby, but maybe more violent."

As usual, our smallest students provided some of the more adorable moments of the week. The first graders learned a couple new words in French: "little brother" and "hen" (chicken-woman in Bambara) with the help of a read-aloud story. The Kindergarteners listened to Le Gâteau (or ask they call it waraba "big lion") and then drew pictures of cake they would like to eat. Most of them are still at the stage where holding a marker is a challenge, but the resulting scribbles were adorable. Afterwards we wrote each of their names and had them repeat the letters. Literacy starts early!

So, as with everything, another week of ups and downs, but more importantly another week of books in the hands of kids. It becomes more and more apparent that we need more books and art supplies and eventually more libraries! Stay tuned for the launch of our website and how to help!

Opening Week at the Library

We officially opened the library on Tuesday and I am so happy to say that our first week of operation has gone amazingly well. Each class has come to the library at their scheduled time, been introduced to the space and how it works, and then gotten some free time to read and look at the books. While there has been some confusion about the procedures for taking books off the shelves and putting them back, the kids are catching on fast and they are overjoyed at getting access to the books. So you can see for yourselves, here are some of the best pictures and my favorite moments from the week.

The 3rd grade was our first primary school group and I was so impressed by how well they listened. Here are some of the girls carefully examining their books.

The second cycle (middle-school classes) are serious about using these books. Their classrooms are right outside our door, so we can hear their normal noise level, but you could have heard a pin drop during 90% of their library time. Most of these 9th grade girls are studying our copies of their French textbook.

I know some of you were waiting for updates on the kindergarten so here they are (with their frequently absent teacher) examining what I am quite sure are the first books most of them have ever held. Unfortunately they are the only class small enough to fit on the mat (we're working on how best to fix that), but they loved the story I read with their teacher's enthusiastic Bambara translations and generally had a great time.

Read-alouds are a little difficult with the bigger classes like the 2nd grade, but with plenty of walking around to make sure everyone saw the pictures Le Gateau was still a big hit.

I just love this picture of one of the 4th graders immersed in his comic book. Later in the afternoon, when he didn't have class, he came back and insisted that I sit with him while he read aloud from another book.

This picture gives you some idea of the ordered chaos that was the entry of 33 first graders into the library. Possibly my favorite moment of the week came in the afternoon when one little girl, Aminata, who is clearly the ring leader of the class, showed up at the door of the library independently with 20 more first graders behind her and declared “An na na liburu kalan.” which translates to “We have come to read the books.”

One of the things that has amazed me most has been how many kids come to the library when they are not in class. This shows one of the tables during lunch-break. The other was equally full. The girl in blue in the front corner helpfully provided us with a list of “Les Noms des Bavards” (the names of the talkers) before leaving.

As I write this about 10 8th graders have come in to read while they wait for their teacher to show up. We'll have to see if this enthusiasm lasts, but for now it sure is fantastic to see. The cours privés start tomorrow and we'll begin literacy activities with the 1er cycle next week. Our librarians are also having a good first week, here's Baïssou posing with the bookshelf.

More Good News and Bad News

The good news is...we're opening on Monday! The books are moving in today, the catalogue program is ready, the class schedule is fixed, and we are ready to go! Everyone is so excited to see kids in the library and the kids are excited as well. We've been at the school a lot this week getting ready and almost every kid who sticks their head in the door says things like, “That's where the books are going to go!”

These are most of the kindergartners at our partner school.

They, of course, are not the bad news; they are fantastic. The bad news is that we have yet to see a teacher in their classroom, which is one of the darkest in the school and has a giant pile of construction equipment in one corner. I am unclear as to what the purpose of kindergarten is in Malian school, given that all of the creativity and color that I associate with kindergarten seems to have no bearing on the remainder of school. Regardless of this question, I am pretty sure that they should have a teacher in their classroom. I think there is one teacher for the kindergarten and 1st grade, and that she spends most of her time with the 1st graders. We hope to work out a system so the Kindergarteners can spend extra time in the library during these periods where they just sit on their miniature benches. Especially at that age, we believe that our brightly colored story mat, some picture books, coloring pictures, talking in French and Bambara, and exploring letters in the library can make a big difference.

Beautiful Bookshelves!

Tomorrow is Eid al Adha, or la Fête de Tabaski as it is known here, and Bamako is alive with people and sheep. The students at our school are off until next Thursday, and our new target opening date is November 14th, a week from Monday! Although we were a little disappointed to slow down, I think it will actually work out for the best since we will be better organized and our early operation won't be interrupted by the craziness of the fête.

Yesterday afternoon our furniture got delivered, and it looks amazing. Madou, our wonderful carpenter, made everything in sort of IKEA -style pieces which not only made it much easier for him to carry up the stairs, but will also be great for cleaning or if we have to move. Here is a picture of Madou and his assistant assembling the tables.

Actually seeing the bookshelves in place made the whole thing seem real, now I just wish we had enough books to fill them! Here are our beautiful shelves, our benches and tables, and Robert sitting at the librarians' new desk, which he thinks is great.

Anyway, the library continues to move towards completion, I can't wait to actually see kids using it!

Scary Facts for Halloween

In terms of actual project progress, we have decided to postpone opening the library until next week for a variety of reasons. The first was the practical concern of when the furniture would be done and moved in and how quickly after that we could have all of the books in place and the space decorated. I think that the remarkable efficiency and transparency of the construction process let us think that all aspects of the process would be so easy. These practical concerns also coincide nicely with the fact that next Sunday (or Monday, the calendar doesn't seem quite figured out yet) is the major holiday Tabaski, so many students and teachers will be traveling to join family, missing class for festival preparations, etc. While we work on getting ready, I thought I'd offer you some truly terrifying facts on education in Mali, in honor of Halloween. All of this information comes from Oxfam's 2009 report on “Delivering Education for all in Mali.” You can read the full text here: http://www.oxfam.org/policy/delivering-education-for-all-mali

As of 2008:

-61% (only 53.9% of girls) of Mali's children aged 7-12 are enrolled in primary school. These numbers are better in Bamako, and worse in the rural regions. In the remote northern region of Kidal, only 33% of girls attend primary school.

-In secondary school (children age 13-15), that enrollment figure falls to 7%. Less than 10% of the children in the entire country are attending secondary school.

-The teacher to pupil ratio in primary school is 1:51, 1:64 in public schools (though it often rises to 1:100 or even higher in rural areas). Picture a first grade class of 100 students on benches with no materials other than slates and chalk. That's what our friend Robert's first grade class looked like.

-Mali's adult literacy rate is 23%, the worst recorded in the world. The literacy rate for women is 16%. This means that fewer than 1 in 4 adult Malians and fewer than 1 in 5 Malian women can read and write. The average adult literacy rate in low-income countries is 60%.

- Just over 10% of Malian teachers completed high school. 1 in 3 Malian teachers did not finish middle school. Teacher training is typically one or two weeks long or consists only of “on the job training” aka starting work.

-There are absolutely no requirements or standards for teachers in private schools like the one where we work. None.

-Public primary school principals receive government grants amounting to between $0.50 and $1.00 per student per year to pay for all books and materials. This means they are often lucky to have enough chalk for the entire year, and maybe books for all their teachers. Books for hundreds of students are usually out of the question.

-Public school principals are paid around $580 per month. Teachers get around $170. Teachers in community schools get $50.

This list could literally go on for pages. I encourage you to read the Oxfam report or other documents on Malian education to get more information, but I would like to leave you with this: these numbers are not abstract descriptions of vague problems on the other side of the world. These are individual children and teachers and parents who make up the future of a country. This is an injustice. I cannot accept that in the same world where I got a Scripps College education there are millions of girls who never start first grade and those who do will go to schools where there are no girls' bathrooms, where their teachers never finished middle school, where there are 60 children in their class and no books, and where they are unlikely to be able to read a single word in their language of instruction in 2^nd grade. Also, keep in mind that this crisis perpetuates cycles of poverty, desperation, and misinformation in a country where famine often looms and Al Qaeda is recruiting. That is scary.

PS I hope you are all trick or treating for UNICEF.

Construction Update - Nearly Done!

On Monday we went to check out the construction progress and it looks amazing! The director decided to donate floor tiles and our contractor donated the labor cost of putting them in which makes the place look even more finished. All that remains now is the electrical fixtures (lights and fans). Our contractor has already purchased them all and they are on site, but the principal of the school insists that his electrician friend who wired the school put them in. That should have gotten done yesterday, I will be going over today to check on that as well as discuss the schedule we've come up with for library use with the principal.

When we arrived to look things over afternoon classes had not yet started so we ran into most of the 9th grade who were very excited to see us again and very very excited to get their pictures taken with us. Even though we're pretty sure 99.9% of that excitement is just about having toubabous (white people) at their school and getting to be in photos with them, we're hoping we can use that to get them excited about the library itself.

Otherwise things continue to go pretty well. We have hit a minor snag on the furniture front because the place where our carpenter buys his wood is currently out so he has to wait for another shipment. Given the number of places one can buy wood in Bamako this seems a slightly dubious explanation, but Baïssou is negotiating that conversation today. We're still hoping to open next Tuesday, though Robert pointed out that going to full scale operation probably doesn't make much sense because next weekend is the Tabaski (Eid Al Adha) holiday so a lot of students will be absent and class schedules will probably be disrupted. We'll keep you posted.

Progress and More on the Problems we Face

We are moving quickly towards opening the library. The last of the construction and the paint job are supposed to be done today, we got a great discount on furniture which my host brother, a carpenter, is making for us, and we're working out the pricing on the Malian textbooks we need. In short, everything is on schedule to open on November 1st.

All of these developments are great, and we are so excited, but at the same time every day things happen which remind us of all the difficulties Malian kids face in their education. For me, this has been most evident recently helping kids in my host family's house with their homework. Mostly I work with my 17-year-old sister who is in her last year of high school and preparing for the all-important Bac (Baccalauréat) exam. Because she is in the “Languages and Literature” track, English is going to be one of her main subjects on the exam and I, by virtue of speaking English, am a natural choice for a tutor. Granted, my sister is not the most serious student, and getting her to focus on anything even in a one-on-one situation is a challenge, but she has been taking English since 7th grade, so I was more than a little alarmed when she didn't recognize “How are you?” in writing the other day. From what I can tell about her class (reading between the lines of potentially overdramatic explanations) her teacher dictates to the class in English for over an hour straight. This dictation may cover grammar and vocabulary or “contemporary” topics such as “Immigration in the United States” or “The Situation of Modern American Blacks.” Most of the vocabulary is far removed from students lives and the content is often questionable at best. Many English teachers here do not actually speak English much better than their students, leading to interesting conclusions as to what is “correct.” Below is a nice example of what she was supposed to learn in 10th grade.

When I am not tackling “Immigration in America,” I also help my 9-year-old niece with the various homework she brings home from 4th grade. She is usually first or second in her class, loves school, and is naturally extremely curious. First, on the subject of that curiosity. While my niece is often praised for doing well in school, curiosity is regarded as strange and unnatural in someone her age. People routinely refer to her as creepy or chase her away from me threatening to hit her if she asks too many questions. Working together on homework, on the other hand, is considered acceptable, so on to that.

While her spoken French has considerably improved since last time I was here and she eagerly incorporates my corrections (always making sure to correct my mistakes in Bambara as well), she still cannot read more than a few words. I realized this as we were going over her history homework (a few questions about a paragraph on her school's history). I asked her to read the first question to me and she said, “I haven't learned it yet.” She memorizes every single lesson, word for word (which is in itself something of an amazing talent). I help her with some of the things she has to recite, usually lessons in either “Civic and Moral Education” (ex. “I never play on bridges because I might fall into the water” or “I behave well in the street and I am always polite”)  or “Observation Sciences.” Our first Observation text was about knives. It basically described a knife and what it did. The question my niece couldn't remember the answer to was “What are the two parts of a knife?” so I drew a picture of a knife and asked her which part was the handle. Of course, she didn't know that the word handle meant, so she indicated the blade. I felt like if the teacher had just brought a knife to class, or drawn one on the board, this could have been avoided. I got so frustrated with this that one night I asked one of our friends who is particularly good at French when he learned to read, explaining that my niece was in 4th grade but only memorized things. He said “She's only in 4th grade? She's doing great! I learned to read in 5th grade, maybe 6th.”

We hope that offering access to books and literacy activities from 1st grade on will help students at our partner school start better understanding their lessons earlier and making connections between words on the blackboard and the real world.

PS This whole post focused on in the classroom issues, I'll write soon about the difficulties of balancing schoolwork and chores and finding a moment to concentrate in the house.

Meet the Students!

On Thursday, as promised, we (me, Neal, Baïssou, Robert, and Voldo) went to school to survey some of the students who will be using our library. When we first arrived in the morning, half of the 9th grade and all of the 7th grade weren't around; there isn't a teacher available for that block, so they don't have class. We came back in the afternoon got to speak with the missing 9th graders, but the 7th graders still weren't in class. The  picture below is of this second group of 9th graders, who were hugely amused by my asking permission to take their photo in Bambara and very enthusiastic about the idea of the photo. Our arrival in the school courtyard caused quite a stir amongst the elementary schoolers whose classes are downstairs, but the students we surveyed were considerably calmer, though still very interested. They stood up respectfully as we entered the classroom with their principal, but the students in the back were craning their necks to see what was going on. We met the English teacher, the French teacher, and the Physics teacher (in Mali, teachers move from class to class while students stay put), all of whom seemed competent and quite interested in the library as well.

The survey we administered was quite basic and, after asking students for their name, grade, age, and gender (we needed names on the surveys to keep track of students' cours privés preferences), asked what kinds of books they would like to see in their library, what they would like to use the library for, what subjects interested them for cours privés, and if they could change one thing to improve their education, what would it be.

The answers revealed many interesting things. To start with the bad news, almost all of the students  made major errors in the simple French sentences they were writing, including misspelling basic words and incorrectly conjugating the verb “to be.” The effects of the DEF exam were also visible in that almost all of the 8th graders were the age we expect 8th graders to be (between 12 and 14) but in the 9th grade class there were many 16 and 17-year-olds and even a couple older students. These are almost certainly students who failed the DEF, possibly multiple times, and are now repeating the 9th grade. Even if they manage to pass the DEF this time around, many are too old for the government to place them in high schools and so will most likely stop going to school.

On the positive side, the gender balance in all three of the classes was almost exactly 50/50, though this too is consistent with the observation that many girls stop going to school after the DEF. Students were very interested in the library, especially in the idea of having access to textbooks and computers.  Though government issued textbooks exist and are the basis for all curriculum in almost all Malian schools, most children never see the book themselves, or have to borrow a copy in order to do their homework. The 9th graders were overwhelmingly interested in cours privés in Math and Science, while the 8th graders had more diverse interests over all, even suggesting additional subjects like history and music. Almost no one understood the question about how they would improve their education, but this question nonetheless yielded interesting results. Among the answers from those who did understand the question were “leave to study in France,” “study in the US,” “do more sports,” “have all of my text books available,” “change the function of my brain” and “be around people who challenge me.” Many students answered the question by telling us what they want to do professionally which included soccer player, nurse, “a doctor to care for the children of Mali,” lawyer, police officer, soldier, Minister for the Promotion of Women and Children, economist, and (this from one of the best writers in the class) actress in Indian soap operas. I find their ambition inspiring, and can't wait to have more conversations with these and other students in the months ahead. We'll keep you updated on what we learn, and we hope that you will be hearing directly from them in the coming weeks. We plan on asking the two 9th graders who said they want to be journalists if they'd like to write something about themselves, their classmates, their school, or their neighborhood for this blog. We'll see what happens!

Construction Update

Yesterday we finally had the chance to go check out the construction progress and things look great. As you can see in the pictures below, the roof is on, the walls are finished, and the bricks needed to install the “petit mur” (little wall) that gives added stability to the metal roof are made. We should be receiving the rest of the construction money sometime this week (many thanks to my parents for being our state-side banking people) and with that the windows will be finished, electricity and fans installed, and the painting done within the next two weeks. The director of the school is responsible for finishing the walls and windows in the two classrooms we provided the roof for, but as he plans to use these classrooms as soon as possible we are sure they will also be complete very soon.

Meanwhile, we are working on having things ready to get the program up and running as soon as construction is finished. Last week we catalogued all of the books we have with us so far, and Neal is going to create an aesthetically pleasing library catalogue search which will put us one step ahead of the Malian national library which is still using a handwritten card-catalogue. Our next shipment of books should be starting its journey from Portland very soon (many thanks  to the donors who gave us our books as well as our friend Keenan who has taken on the task of  sending them). We are also working with my host brother Madou, a carpenter, on getting an estimate for the furniture we need and Baïssou and Robert are starting the search for cours privés (the additional classes the center will offer on weekends) teachers.

It is a very exciting time, even as we continue to note the massive challenges facing the Malian education system in general and our project in particular. On Thursday we are going to survey students and teachers who will hopefully be using the center, which promises to be enlightening. I'll write again after that.

Education system as seen on the first day of school

On Monday at noon I was sitting outside drinking tea (as I often am), and watching kids come home for lunch on the first day of school for the 2011-2012 year. In some ways, it very much resembles the first day of school at home. Everyone is dressed in new clothes, I see bedazzled blue jeans, easter dresses, polo shirts, tiny 5-year-old-sized suits, neatly tailored traditional “complets” in wax and bazin. The little “wahabi” girls from down the street come home with their bright backpacks on the outside of their black robes, under their headscarves. The girls all have new braids or weaves in, and everyone is walking in that serious, careful way kids walk when they have been warned not to get their clothes dirty. Older brothers and sisters come home holding their younger siblings hands and shiny new Barbie and Transformers backpacks. Order starts to break down as they get closer to home, some of the boys take off their shoes and get their feet and the cuffs of their pants dusty, kids start to run, and roughhouse. High schoolers start to come by in co-ed groups, flirting before they get back in sight of their parents. It is a colorful, hopeful picture, and I couldn't help but smile. At the same time though, I am afraid for all of these kids, thinking about the system they are up against.

Before I launch into what is sure to be a woefully incomplete explanation of the problems of the Malian education system, I want to point out that a lot of these problems will not seem unfamiliar to educators, students, and parents in the US. As is the case with, for example, the unemployment debate, the scale of the education crisis in Mali is more massive than that of our (extremely grave) crisis at home.

The basic structure of the Malian system is as follows: children enter school in kindergarten and from that time until 6th grade they are in “premier cycle” (first cycle). Thankfully, the government has recently abolished the exam that students used to take between 6th and 7th grade and now passing 6th grade is all that is required to move on to "second cycle" which goes from 7th to 9th grade. After 9th grade, students take the DEF (Diplome d'Education Fondementale) exam. Your score on this exam, as well as the age at which you take it, determines your next step. If you pass the exam before age 15, the government will assign you to a high school based on your score. Higher scoring students will be placed in “lycées” (high schools); the higher your score, the better the school (the government will pay for scholarships at private school for high scoring students). Lower scores will get you sent to technical high schools. The difference between the two is that students at technical schools do not take the Bac exam after 12th grade and do not go on to university. If you take the DEF exam after age 15, the government is not required to place you at all, and your family must pay for you to attend school. As a result, older students almost always go to technical school, which is less expensive. Lycée students specialize in one of several "filières" (tracks) and go on to take the fearsome "bac." Depending on their score on this exam, and the age at which they take it, they may or may not move on to university.

This picture is complicated by the fact that it does not even include the wide variety of medrasas (or Koranic schools) that many children here attend either for a couple years before starting mainstream school, or in place of primary school. It also ignores the substantial role that money plays in the system. It is possible to pay for a student to pass a grade, and this payment is so routine and formalized that it is considered as distinct from a bribe. Families can also pay to place their children in better schools than their DEF score warranted, and only families with means can afford to pay for students to continue school if they took the DEF or Bac late. Many students also take "cours privés" (private classes) outside of school, a service also only currently available to paying customers. Finally, it should be noted that public school in Mali is not free, the difference between public and private schools being that private schools students pay monthly fees in addition to their inscription fees.

Inside the classroom, overcrowding is a huge problem. Even with the veritable explosion of private schools (there are 3 on our street that I know of), there is simply not enough physical capacity. Private schools range widely in quality (the only standard appears to be that they follow the same curriculum as everyone else), and are often more accessible than public schools. Class size pretty much starts at 40 and goes up. At my sister Fadima's high school, there are 12 classes of kids in 12th grade and her class alone has 63 students. At public schools, class size can reach almost 100 students in middle and high school, with dozens of classes in each grade.

Then there is the content of classroom education itself. With the exception of a few community schools, French is the sole language of instruction, which is problematic considering that almost none of the students speak French at home. Immersion is a successful strategy for language learning with young children, but when information is presented entirely devoid of context in the form of rote memorization from the blackboard the children are not learning the language. In many cases it is questionable if they are learning anything. The teachers themselves went through this same system and commonly teach incorrect French that is noticeable even to me. The children in my host family attend some of the better private schools in our neighborhood and my niece in 8th grade cannot read, and even my niece in 4th grade, who is consistently at the top of her class, knows only extremely limited French and has trouble with anything that deviates from what she is memorizing at the moment. I have thus far not witnessed any questions that engage students' critical thinking, or even their opinions. Then again, with 60+ kids in a classroom, and no discussion of alternatives, I don't know what else the teachers could be expected to do.

All of this, of course, applies only to the children who actually make it into a classroom, which many rural Malians (and some in the cities as well), especially girls, do not. Of those who do, many will drop out after 3rd grade, or 6th grade, and many will quit after they fail the DEF. Of course, even for those who do make it all the way through university, there are very few jobs waiting. Considering the situation makes my head and my heart hurt.

Our project hopes to intervene in this tangled web for one group of kids in one neighborhood and offer them access not only to books and “cours privés” not previously available, but also the opportunity to engage with different styles of learning, in smaller groups and in more creative ways. The problem is enormous, but we have to start somewhere. As Baïssou, Robert, and most Malians I know are fond of saying: "dooni, dooni." Little by little.

Construction Started Yesterday!

We apologize for the delay between posts, but this is an exciting one! Our first concern in getting the center off the ground was obviously to find physical space. Our partnership with the St Pierre school group offered space at one of its two second cycle (middle school) sites. The land at this site is owned outright by the director of the St Pierre Schools, which ensures that the center will be able to remain at that location and not be at risk of losing its home to changes in a rental agreement.

Once we had decided on this location, we began working with a “master mason” to get an estimate on our original vision of a free standing space. Unfortunately, even after reducing the dimensions and switching to cheaper materials that space would still be beyond our current budget. We were looking at returning to a rental option, before Baïssou came up with the brilliant idea of asking the school director if we could contribute to the cost of finishing the school's unfinished third floor and get the use of some of that space. The estimate for this plan was in line with our budget, so we will have a large space (the size of two classrooms) for the library itself, with free use of the adjacent classrooms during non-school hours to give supplemental classes. There is an external stairwell that allows access to the space without disrupting students in class. Pictures will definitely follow.

We agreed on this estimate sometime last week, but then entered the baffling and frustrating world of sending money from the US to Mali. Western Union is the fastest option, but takes a substantial percentage of the money sent in fees. We decided the best option would be to set up a bank account here and transfer the majority of the money that way. This led to an interesting foray into the Malian banking system that revealed, among other things, that Malian banks take a small portion of the balance of a checking account each month in fees. While this was a frustrating process, it has produced worthwhile results and the first of the money arrived yesterday afternoon and construction starts today!

We plan to have the center ready for operation on November 1st!

The picture below shows me, Baïssou, Robert and “Vieux” (our mason/contractor) studying one of the various estimates along the way. Vieux is Baïssou's older brother and apparently built the apartment building we live in, along with many other buildings in the area. He lives in Niamakoro and two of his children attend the school where the center will be located. He tends to be a man of few words, but he says he thinks the project will be valuable to the neighborhood and is working for a fraction of his usual labor cost.

Plans to work with the St Pierre School Group

Things are getting off the ground! Through our Malian partners Baissou and Robert, we have found a group of schools to work with. These are private institutions, but they are the only nearby schools for some of the poorest residents of the Niamakoro neighborhood. Tonight or tomorrow we will be meeting with the director of these institutions to draw up a plan, more on that to come. For now, here are some pictures of the primary school we would be working with. It is currently vacation here, which is why the furniture is not arranged, but Robert tells us there are often up to 60 children in these classrooms, underlining the importance of having more individualized attention available.

The Project Begins! Inspiration to Reality

 The Niamakoro Education Center project was inspired by my Fall 2009 semester in Mali through SIT and by this photo:

This is a 7th grader at the Niamakoro Community School filling out her survey for my independent study project on girls and education in Bamako. In Mali a literate 12-year-old girl who is still pursuing her education is an extremely rare phenomenon. My independent study project showed me that this is still true even in Bamako where the gender inequity in education is supposedly solved.


My experience in Bamako was one of the greatest of my life and it could not have been so without the many amazing people who cared for me and introduced me to their homes and their lives. These connections, combined with my outrage at the lack of educational resources available to children, especially girls, in Mali made me want to go back and try to  contribute something to Bamako.


I firmly believe that the people in the best position to start solving the problems facing periurban Malian communities, or indeed any community, are the members of the community themselves. I am lucky to have many intelligent and educated friends from Niamakoro and this project arose from an ongoing conversation with one of them, Moussa Coulibaly. When asked what he would do to improve the educational future of girls in Niamakoro, Moussa said he would build a library, and so the grant writing process began.


Now, funded by the Davis Peace Project and armed with over 200 books generously donated by everyone from French professors at Scripps College to classmates, we are preparing to leave for Bamako. We will arrive on Friday, September 9th and will update this blog as the project finally takes concrete form. We can't wait to get started!