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.