1) In England children are allowed
to only come to school with a bottle of water to drink at allocated times. In
Tanzania my class come to school with flasks of tea to drink during maths.
2) In England children come to
school dressed in School uniform. In Tanzania my children come to school
dressed as Princesses.
3) In England there is that time
of year when all teachers go in a mad frenzy about ofsted coming in. In
Tanzania you show them your teaching degree certificate and you pass.
4) In England most schools have
Interactive whiteboards to use for display. In Tanzania we have a square of
painted on Chalk paint but it just adds to the whole Africa thing I’ve got
going on
5) In England you get bogged down
with 1 hour of literacy and 1 hour of numeracy. In Tanzania your lucky if you
get a half hour of math’s and literacy just squeezes in wherever
6) In England children tend to
draw on paper. In Tanzania children draw on their teachers and give them fake
tattoos.
7) In England children are
fortunate enough that the majority of schools have a computer room or access to
and that children tend to have some out of school access to a computer. In
Tanzania that luxury is unfortunately limited to only a handful. In Tanzania
you see a child’s face light up when they use a computer for the first time in
their lives.
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This is Mercy when she first tried out typing.
The expression on her face will stay with me
for years, her excitement and joy was so emotional and has really made me think about how grateful for every computer I have used and owned.
8) In England you find a bug or
insect in your classroom and usually the children will scream or worse even
cry. In Tanzania you find lizards and giant beetles in your classroom, your
students will then name the creature and the whole Geography lesson will be
taken over by the new distraction. In addition to this never in England did I
have to pull out a tick from my student’s neck with a pair of tweezers, another
skill I can check of my list. Ha
9) In England teachers tend to
have their favorite mug in which they look forward to using for their break
time coffee/cuppa tea. In Tanzania I have no such mug; which is fine, usually.
After a tough morning of giant beetle naming I grabbed the last mug on the
shelf and this is what I found. I have stuck to cans of coke ever since.
10) In
England you play games such as football or skipping. In Tanzania we play ‘how
many students and teachers can you fit in one van.’
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| This is what 16 people crammed into a van looks like in sweltering 30 degrees heat |
