9 March 2009

Let me tell you about the school.

The school works in two shifts – a common practice is Ethiopia as there is simplynot enough schools for the number of children needing to be educated. The first shift comes to the school at 7.00a.m. for an hour of Shacharit prayers followed by half an hour Hebrew and half an hour of Jewish ‘culture.’ This shift continues with its secular school studies until 1.00p.m. when they walk from the Jewish school about 10 minutes walk to the Jewish compound for lunch. The rest of the day is free.

Shift two starts with Shacharit at 10.00a.m. at the Jewish compound, followed by lunch at 11.00. At 11.30 they have their Hebrew and Jewish culture lessons after which they walk over to the school for their secular ones which end at 5.00p.m. The classes are not exactly even in length, and there is only Friday morning ( not afternoon school because of Shabbat) so each week the two shifts swap, so the morning shift becomes the afternoon one. There are ten classes in each shift ranging from grade 1-4, but the children in it can be of any age. An average grade 2 class will have children from 6 to13. Children don’t necessarily start school at 5 or 6 although the law requires that they be educated. Often they get sent when it is most convenient for the family, and often children get little more than four years of schooling. Certainly not everyone makes it to high school, and certainly not everyone finishes school – including many of the Judaism teachers! You can usually tell the level of a persons education by the amount of English they know. Other than the street kids, who can charm you with a welter of English phrases (“What is your name? That is a beautiful name! What is the weather condition in England? Are just a few.) Those who did not make it into high school did not learn English at all while once they reach grade 9 all their lessons are held in English.

There are on average 45 children to a class, sitting on metal benches – four or five to a bench really made for three. Some of the classrooms are impossibly small and would break every health and safety rule in the book – as would the toilets which are simply a series of holes in the ground. In the Hebrew classes the children learn entirely by rote with the teacher or often a child pointing to a sentence on the board and asking the rest of the class to repeat it endlessly. In the culture class, the pattern seems to be for the teacher to tell the class something, then write it down and the children copy it into their exercise books. There is very little question and answer and there is certainly no other method of teaching employed. The children on the whole are well behaved, but like every school there are some that pay attention rather better than others. The day we brought in Purim masks to show the children after morning prayers, I noticed one class of kids tear the brown paper backing to their books and make their own masks whenever the teacher’s back was turned.

Our day runs like this. 7.00a.m. we attend morning prayers at the school and then observe the teachers. My friend Hila, watches the Hebrew teachers and I watch the culture teachers. Her task is considerably easier than mine as at least she understands the language that is being taught. I listen to two half hour lessons in Amharic, which I patently failed to learn before I came here. But it is interesting how much you can learn about a lesson simply by observing the interaction between the teachers and their pupils. The school is new. Many of the teachers look as if they have just graduated from cheder themselves. None are trained teachers and many did not finish high school. Their Jewish knowledge is about the level our brighter thirteen year olds, but they do not have the enquiring minds, or critical facility that we encourage.

At 9.00a.m. we start to teach the teachers. For the first hour, I teach Jewish culture, while Hila teachers the Ivrit teachers. Then we all meet together – right now to prepare a Purim play – and then we split up again and I do some work of lesson planning and teaching skills. I have a translator who is the head master of the school which is brilliant as he is keen to improve the standard of the Jewish education and thinks England has all the answers! At 12.00p.m. we break and then walk over to the community centre to teach the second shift of teachers. This follows the pattern of the morning, except that in the second hour we are teaching Purim songs and making masks. The intention is to give every child in the school a mask – all nine hundred of them!

At 4.00p.m. we finish teaching, and start preparing lessons for the next day. All in all it is a very long day – but great fun and as we get to know the teachers and, more slowly the children, we do feel that perhaps we are making a small difference in helping this beleaguered community relate to its Judaism.