Things here have been hectic for Liz and I. Thus I have been horribly remiss in updating the readers of this blog as to how things have been going. This school term, since our last vacation, I have been busy fulfilling the bureaucratic duties of a subject specialist. Also despite the fact that this area only receives an average rainfall in April of 0-1", it rained all month as if it were April in Illinois and they say more may still yet come. The roads are deteriorating and the days are getting shorter and enthusiasm has been in shorter supply.
Assessment in the South African education system is very different than assessment in the US. The policy is known as the Continuous Assessment Standard or CASS. This is a very poor name for the policy as it is misleading. In reality it means that a very small number or tests and assignments, called CASS pieces, have any bearing on the formal measure of a learner's success. It has this name in relation to the policy that proceeded it which those who've spent time in other educational structures outside the US may be familiar with. Previously, a learner's performance for the whole year was recorded by taking the results of a single year-end exam. After each term of the year, South African educators must have their CASS pieces moderated for quality assurance at various levels of the educational hierarchy. This policy has been a source of great challenge in my work. Because only one or two assessments must be recorded and completed in each term, there is very little to keep an educator from limiting themselves to only these assessments and not assigning homework or classwork which, in my experience, is the only way to learn subjects like mathematics or physical sciences. Performance on the exams is poor and the practical investigations are really abysmal. I continue to recommend an amount of homework which the learner's workbooks continue to not reflect.
The moderation itself is tedious and when I was asked to assist with moderating for natural sciences in grades 4-6 I was grieved by the lack of quality work that's going on at that level. I'm pretty far away from my own education at that level and seem to recall science being minimized and ignored in favor of mathematics and literacy during those times. I'm not sure it's the end of the world but would be more assured if I thought the quality of the literacy and mathematics lessons were better. Also, I wish they exposed the learner's to the scientific method at this stage as it is clear they are completely lost about it in high school. Maybe I'll try and organize a 6th grade science fair with those stencils and three sectioned cardboards.
Liz and I stayed in Pretoria this last week to attend yet another Peace Corps event with an acronym ending in the letter 'T'. Have have attended PST, (pre-service training); IST, (in-service training); LST, (life skills training); and this last week, GTOT or general training of trainers. That is, we sat in the board room at the Peace Corps office in Pretoria all week long and planned, discussed, and strategized for the success of the PST of the next intake of Peace Corps volunteers in South Africa, SA22. In attendance at this event were about a dozen Peace Corps volunteers mostly from our cohort and the LCFs, or language and cross-cultural facilitators, who will be the first South Africans the trainees will get to know and who will spend more time with the trainees than anyone else. I was pleased with the team spirit that developed and am optimistic for the PST ahead. In case anyone is wondering, still to come is our Peace Corps service is MST or mid-service training and COST, or close of service training.
I found myself reflecting, throughout the week, about my own PST and what that time was like. It's fair to say that at times I was frustrated. It's a strange thing to come to a foreign place and spend 8 weeks hanging out with a bunch of Americans without much personal freedom. Where I feel like training was challenging, I can see now that my expectations for how it should have been were inappropriate. Peace Corps volunteers are not all alike one to another. The strengths and liabilities they bring to the project are widely varied. Coming up with a training schedule that will give each one the entire skill set needed to produce sustainable change in the community they will eventually be placed in is an impossible task. However, Peace Corps, as an organization, not only in this post, realizes that training is a continual process that takes place every day in a volunteer's life. Maybe someone tried to communicate this message at our training, but if so, I didn't catch on. I realize this better after attending GTOT. Some topics which are blocked for a one hour session could be the subject of an entire semester's work. Not having an entire semester and having some trainees who have probably already taken that semester's work at a top-notch education college, our goal is to increase awareness of things that are likely to be useful in a volunteer's service and as each volunteer's service shapes and evolves, the mastery of those things can take place on the job. They don't say that Peace Corps is the hardest job you'll ever love for no reason.
I understand that invitation letters for this group are currently in the process of being sent and it seems possible even that some folks who are wondering what it will be like when they move to South Africa this July might be reading this. To any of those, I just want to say that we are excited to meet you and that we really want to do everything we can to help make your Peace Corps service successful.
The next topic for this blog is really quite sad. While I was away last week, I learned that Mogorosi Katane had passed away. Mr. Katane was the subject specialist for physical sciences at the office where Liz and I work. I had intended on working very closely with him throughout my service. Last November, he fell ill and when he had not recovered after the Christmas break, I was asked to fill his shoes until he recovered. I wish I had had more time to know him better because I very much enjoyed his company in the time before he left and found his understanding of this time and place to be wise and engaging. He was quick with a smile and generous with his laughter. I have missed him much over the last several months and am sad that I will not laugh with him more. He leaves behind a fourteen year old daughter who has now lost both parents to illness. I have not ever met her but I hear she is fiercely independent and very bright. She will rely heavily on her friends and family as well as friends of her father who all care for her and wish her better than she's had. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers. They are much needed.
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