Education ... Episod 1

When I was in Waka I made a sad conclusion: Teachers of maths physics in secondary school know nothing... Actually before the war ( 1997 2004) there were apparently good teachers. Teachers were going to the university and the level was correct. Before 1997, there were also lots of cooperation between USA and Congo, and lots of their teachers were USA teachers .

During the war all this generation was killed, cooperation gone, manual burnt, and during 2 years there were no school at all. It means that since then all knowledge were lost.

Everybody keeps saying: “before  it was so much better, at least people had a good education” Incredible what 5 years of war and a bad government can do to a country... 

A math teacher in the secondary school now is a guy who just passed (=bought) his “diplome de fin d'étude” (end of secondary school) . So he gives back what he understood from the lesson he just had. The only manual he has is what he copied on his paper when he was attending the class (with a huge amount of mistake).

The coordinator asked me to assess the level of some lessons done... a catastrophe. (it was the first time a class was assessed in math and physic because no inspectors has any knowledge in these fields...)  The school does not have the national program, so what they teach has sometime nothing to do with what they should teach....

But in these villages how could they have national program? There is nothing to get information. Nobody comes and sees them to give them the information. It should be one of the role of the coordinator, but he comes once very 4 years, because he has too many parish to visit, and no money to pay the fuel to get there...

I have not assess level of history or geography but I fear it is the same...

I won't be able to change the world, but I decided to find a way to get all national programs, to find a way to print them and send them at least one in each school. There are 400 of them all over a diocese of 700km large and 300km long...

Actually there are more and more humanitarian projects coming to this diocese in order to rescue Bonobo and trees so they should be able to help me to rescue the teachers and pupils! I am trying to make a deal with them that each time they are going with motorbike in the forest for their projects, I'll force them to take and distribute national programs. Nobody dares asking them, but because I am a white it is accepted I ask...

I am also writing some manuals of maths and physics to give at least the basics, and then train some teachers in each parish of the diocese in order to bring the correct knowledge back...

Well it was hard to see all I saw but it gave me even more motivation to continue helping them. These poor population is really abandoned and has no means to do better.

It was the first parish  deep inside the forest I visited. The diocese has 20 of those. No idea how I will manage to  get there and train everybody. Well still 8 months!