Two weeks ago, we had a ceremony (including a student play) for the graduating class of Form 6 (equivalent of Grade 13). Their final national exam results hadn’t come out so they hadn't found out if they’d actually passed the exams to receive their diploma, but in my opinion, they deserved to celebrate the end of their school years. In this country, making your way to secondary school, let alone graduating as a Form 6 student by itself is an accomplishment, even though “going to school” in this place often means hanging out in a classroom all day without lessons. After finishing up 7 years of elementary school, the kids need to score well in their first national exam to secure their places in secondary schools. Once they are in, they need to take national exams once every two years (at Form 2 although some schools in Zanzibar now don’t do it any more, Form 4 and Form 6) to move on to the upper grades. (and keep in mind that they need to write the exams in English which most of the students aren’t proficient enough to write exams in.) I don’t have hard evidence, but from what I’ve heard, retention rate of the students is about 25%. So you can imagine how hard it is for the kids to make it to Form 6, especially in the ordinary Tanzanian learning environment where teachers don’t teach and teaching materials are scarce.
The outlook for the graduates however is grim. Jobs are scarce, only a handful of them would score marks on their exams high enough to have their college or university education paid by the government, and most of them can’t afford to go do their post secondary schools without some kind of financial assistance.
The chances are slim and situation, daunting. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any success stories.
This Easter weekend, I had some volunteer friends visiting from the mainland. One of them came with her co-worker who was going to see his family back in Zanzibar. He’s a Tanzanian national currently working on an HIV/AIDS prevention program as a United Nations Volunteer (http://www.unv.org/) at a district office in the mainland. He told me the story of how he got to where he is now, and it’s quite remarkable.
He was born in a small fishing village in Zanzibar and spent his childhood like any of his friends: running around, going out to the sea and not going to school much. The school wasn’t and to some extent still isn’t today vital to their survival. Plenty of fish in the sea, fruit is abundant, opportunity of higher education is close to none, and what can learning at school do for you in that kind of environment?
So he quit going to school at the age of 13 after finishing his Standard 6 (Grade 6) came to town and took up some odd jobs. Then the moment came abruptly. One day he was chatting up some girls. One of them showed him her English textbook and asked him to read it. He had no idea what was written of course and girls laughed at him so badly that he was so embarrassed and decided to go back to school. As random as it might have been, this was when he became determined to learn and do something.
Then his life took off. He finished his elementary school, did well in the national exam and secured his place at a secondary school. He finished Form 6 with good marks and later, received a scholarship to study in Italy. After completing some training programs in community development in Europe, he applied to his current position as the UNV.
The fact that he went against the odds and accomplished so much in the daunting environment is just incredible. Not only he’s steadily building his career in developing his own country or others if he chooses to go international, he’s also well-paid by his home institution so his life is secured. I guess this is all thanks to that one embarrassing incident back when he was 13.
I’ve noticed that among many other obstacles, one thing that’s impeding the kids from stepping up, making effort to do what they want is lack of role models. Like everyone else around the world, they want to have happy and successful life which, to the kids in this country, often means having well-paid jobs such as doctor, or frankly speaking, getting out of this country. To do these things, they already know that they have to do well in school. But I feel that lack of role models and the slim chances are making them be ever more reluctant to believe that there is a correlation between their effort and success. A person like him however is an excellent role model whom the kids can look up to. It was really nice meeting him, knowing that where ever you are there are remarkable individuals who can overcome seemingly formidable obstacles in their lives. I truly hope there will be more people like him in the future.
The outlook for the graduates however is grim. Jobs are scarce, only a handful of them would score marks on their exams high enough to have their college or university education paid by the government, and most of them can’t afford to go do their post secondary schools without some kind of financial assistance.
The chances are slim and situation, daunting. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any success stories.
This Easter weekend, I had some volunteer friends visiting from the mainland. One of them came with her co-worker who was going to see his family back in Zanzibar. He’s a Tanzanian national currently working on an HIV/AIDS prevention program as a United Nations Volunteer (http://www.unv.org/) at a district office in the mainland. He told me the story of how he got to where he is now, and it’s quite remarkable.
He was born in a small fishing village in Zanzibar and spent his childhood like any of his friends: running around, going out to the sea and not going to school much. The school wasn’t and to some extent still isn’t today vital to their survival. Plenty of fish in the sea, fruit is abundant, opportunity of higher education is close to none, and what can learning at school do for you in that kind of environment?
So he quit going to school at the age of 13 after finishing his Standard 6 (Grade 6) came to town and took up some odd jobs. Then the moment came abruptly. One day he was chatting up some girls. One of them showed him her English textbook and asked him to read it. He had no idea what was written of course and girls laughed at him so badly that he was so embarrassed and decided to go back to school. As random as it might have been, this was when he became determined to learn and do something.
Then his life took off. He finished his elementary school, did well in the national exam and secured his place at a secondary school. He finished Form 6 with good marks and later, received a scholarship to study in Italy. After completing some training programs in community development in Europe, he applied to his current position as the UNV.
The fact that he went against the odds and accomplished so much in the daunting environment is just incredible. Not only he’s steadily building his career in developing his own country or others if he chooses to go international, he’s also well-paid by his home institution so his life is secured. I guess this is all thanks to that one embarrassing incident back when he was 13.
I’ve noticed that among many other obstacles, one thing that’s impeding the kids from stepping up, making effort to do what they want is lack of role models. Like everyone else around the world, they want to have happy and successful life which, to the kids in this country, often means having well-paid jobs such as doctor, or frankly speaking, getting out of this country. To do these things, they already know that they have to do well in school. But I feel that lack of role models and the slim chances are making them be ever more reluctant to believe that there is a correlation between their effort and success. A person like him however is an excellent role model whom the kids can look up to. It was really nice meeting him, knowing that where ever you are there are remarkable individuals who can overcome seemingly formidable obstacles in their lives. I truly hope there will be more people like him in the future.
