School dilemmata

This time I want to write about what school does and doesn't.
It does teach children, yes.
But which way and with which result , this seems to be the more important question...
A question that I am asking again and again, for having seen children aged 12 and above who cannot spell their name correctly, for having heard lots of them speaking a not understandable mixture of Kom (their native language) and English, even when asked to speak clearly. For having heard very few words in French from them (the second official language of Cameroon) and for having seen them escaping from school.

I have observed in their class behaviour two very extremes: Some of them are so shy they even can't raise their head to say good morning - hiding their face behind their hands, and whispering when asked a gentle question. The others, jumping on the tables, running in and out the classroom when asked to sit down.

This said, I ask myself, what happened to them before I came and entered the classroom and got so many times desperate facing the given situation?

And I go to their schools, and I see how many of them are sitting in a classroom which is of the same size than our normal classrooms: at least 90 up to 150 of them are squeezed behind the wooden benches.

School starts at seven. Children are asked to clean their classrooms, later pray together and raise the flag. Then they enter their classrooms, and before the teacher comes the discipline master does his job. He has a wooden stick and you can well imagine what it is meant for.

School goes until 2 or 3pm and there is only one break around 11, which lasts about maximum half an hour. I didnt see any of them eating, but maybe they really dont need to.

This is the situation, and I barely can't believe that some of them come to our Afterschool classes with a lot of curiosity and willingness to learn new things from us. Today, we ware 4 teachers with 4 students (the ones that came despite of the heavy rain). We sat down with them one to one, asked them what they wanted to learn or do, and soon questions over questions were asked to ask. We gave them some mathematic puzzles and they asked for more and more.