A Day at the Primary School

As soon as the door creaks opens the kids scramble out of their seats, leap to their feet and cry in unison, “Good morning teachers!” 

“Good morning.” I respond. “How are you?”

They call out, “We are fine, thank you. How are you teachers?”

“We are fine. You may be seated.” 

For Standard 1 that’s about all they know in English, but thankfully, the third graders speak a little more. I teach Bible to standard 3.

As I look around the room, I wonder what exciting thing will happen today. 

We start off by singing songs such as “Deep and Wide” and “Jesus loves me” and so forth.

They love singing “We are Soldiers” as well as “I’ve Got a River of Life.” We kneel down and when we get to the part where you say “Splish, splash,” they shout it at the top of their lungs as they spring up off the ground.

“I’ve gotta river of life flowing out me. Makes the lame to walk and the blind to see. Opens prison doors sets the captives free, I’ve gotta river of a life flowing out of me. Spring up oh well, SPLISH, SPLASH! Within my so-ul. Spring up oh well, SPLISH, SPLASH! And make me whole. Spring up oh well, SPLISH, SPLASH! And give to me, that love, abundantly.”

What a Shakalabagala! (an expression that means "a mess” in Swahili ) The room erupts with shouts and laughter as they finish the song. The screeching of desks echoes around the room  as they flop into their seats.

Next is story time. I start into the story of Noah’s Ark. After every few sentences, I pause as Julius translates so they don’t miss anything. Surprisingly, Most of the children listen with rapt attention, surprisingly.  Some of them know the story but for some, it’s their first time.  I tell of the animals coming in the ark, two by two and some by sevens.

“What are some animals that came into the ark?” I ask.

Hands shoot into the air.

“Lions!” exclaims one. 

“Snakes” mentions another.

“Sheep”

“Elephants!”

I tell them about the rainbow, God’s promise to never flood the earth again. “God always keeps His promises.”

Then we sing “Standing on the Promises.” Every time the song says “standing” they all jump in place. As we sing they watch us expectantly, waiting to know when to jump.

I look at the time; 8:53. 

“Okay” I think to myself, “Two more minutes until break.” 

After I finally hush them all down, we kneel to  say the closing prayer.  

I open the door and let all the kids out, high-fiving them all the way. 

My next class is Math with Standard 1, one of my favorite classes. They love to count to a hundred, so to start, I lead them into doing just that.  

“1! 2! 3! 4! 5! …” they scream at the top of their lungs. “98! 99! 100!!!!!” As they reach one hundred, they just let it all out. I have to consciously tell myself not to plug my ears. 

Next I write numbers 1-10 on the blackboard and ask the kids to circle the number I specify.

I point to one child, give him the chalk and say, “Circle number 6 for me on the board.” Then to the next child, “Could you please circle number 10? “Circle number 4...”

When they circle all the numbers on the board, I tell them to get out their exercise books. When they say exercise books, they say books with a very defined oo or u sound. 

Next, I draw a certain amount of objects that they must count and put in their notebooks. I also add some simple addition questions such as; 1+ 1,  5+1,  3+2, ect.  As soon as they are done, they bring up their notebooks for me to grade them.

Time has flown, but before I head to the next class, I want to take a video and maybe some pictures of the children.  I take out my camera and instantly a whisper goes amongst the kids, “Pictures! Pictures!” They all huddle together and start singing for the camera. How convenient!

“Whisper a prayer in the morning. Whisper a prayer at no-on. Whisper a prayer in the evening, to keep your heart in tune!…” they sing. 

Next it’s time for Science with my favorite class again; Standard 1. 

“What’s this?” I ask pointing to my nose.

“Nose!” their scattered shouts ricochets off each other. 

“And this?”

“Mouth!!!” they answer.

“What about his?” I challenge them.

“Ears!” “Eyes!” 

“No, these are not my ears, what are they?”

“Eyes!” 

“Good job!” I congratulate them. 

Next we sing, “Head and shoulders knees and toes” to help them remember the parts of the body.

Soon it is time to end.

“Can anyone volunteer to pray?” Unlike Standard 3, tons of hands shoot in the air instantly. 

After the prayer, it’s break again.

The kids clamor all over me, touching my hair, grabbing my hand and arms, trying to hug, trying to high-five and pull me down, and just craving for some attention. They are all so cute though! Finally, I get the “cute leeches” off of me so I can go to my next class, English with Standard 7. Big  jump, eh? 

Standard 7 has only nine kids so it’s a lot of fun to teach them. They are a LOT quieter and attentive than Standard 1 and 3.  They had a test today so I didn’t have to do any talking. They had to finish their math test from the previous class so we didn’t do to much English. I was shocked at the grades of their math tests! Only one girl passed. Neema got something like 64% which apparently is a B. I think in the US it would be more like a D! Anyways, the second highest score was 24%. All the rest were like 8%, 16% and 20%. The teacher gave them a lecture after this. He told them from now on, if they didn’t get at least 50%, there would be a punishment. It could be the stick or something else. He didn’t specify. 

“The schools are so different here than in America!” I thought. 

The teacher told me that they didn’t really care and weren’t trying. He was surprised to hear that in the States we don’t use sticks.

“Even for the younger ones?!” he questioned.

“Nope, not at all.” 

I was surprised at the grades because they (at least some of them) are pretty good at Math, that is when they have to do the problems on the board. 

Teaching here is extremely hard and a very unique experience.  It is still a lot of fun. I’m just glad I can be a blessing to these amazing children of God.