Exams – failures and successes

Primary 5 exam paper

The end of November is the end of the school year in South Sudan.  Since I arrived in late September, I have been teaching two classes, Primary 4 and Primary 5.  These are large (50+) classes with a range of ages from 10 to mid-teens.  A small number of my pupils are residents in the children’s home, but the majority are from local families who struggle to pay for school fees and uniforms.  These families are pinning all their future hopes on their children’s education.  Who can blame them?  This is a country which has seen nothing but civil war for the past 50 years, with no investment in education, transport, utilities or anything else.  One local man told me very bitterly that ‘this is a Sixth World country, not a Third World country’.  This area of South Sudan was particularly hard-hit by the Lords Resistance Army resulting in tragedy for all.  Many of the children from ‘outside’ the home are also orphans living with extended family.  After all the death and destruction at last they see a light at the end of the tunnel and want to take full advantage of the chance of education. 

As mentioned previously, conditions at the school are very basic and the teachers’ approach leaves a lot to be desired.  Earlier in the term I realised that there are huge disparities between levels of English in my classes, ranging from completely illiterate and non-verbal in English, to a minority of quite fluent and able students.  I attempted to divide the Primary 4 class, which has the most chronic problems so that I had the beginners and the pastor in charge of the orphanage and school took the high achievers.  Unfortunately, although the pastor initially agreed to help, it clearly wasn’t a priority for him.  He managed to take one lesson and after that pleaded ‘busy-ness’, leaving me in the same situation as previously.

Every picture tells a story.

If students don’t pass their end of year exams they have to re-take the year, putting an additional strain on their families, resulting in ridiculously old students in primary classes, or students dropping out completely.  I allocated the last two weeks before the end of term for exam preparation and mocks.  Then, last Friday afternoon, one of the teachers mentioned in passing that my two classes would now be out of school until their exams.  I rushed out of the staff room, grabbed one of my pupils and said that he was to let his classmates know that I was happy to continue revision lessons with them if they came to school as usual.  So, for the early part of the week I coached a small group of keen students.

The English exams for both my classes were two days ago (Thursday).  As I waited for breakfast, the pastor said that there was nothing to worry about and that they would all pass.  I asked him how he could be so sure.  He said he had seen the exam papers and they were ‘easy’.  I asked him if they were easy enough for someone who could not read.  That stumped him.  I was absolutely livid with his cavalier attitude.

In the morning I invigilated for Primary 5.  After collecting the papers, I had the sad task of marking them.  This took me from 11.30am until 9pm, with short breaks for meals.  To lighten things a bit for me, some of the questions show very clearly that we are in South Sudan and are amusing.  A particular gem was:

Doing well in my examinations this year I shall slaughter a cock for celebration.  (Re-write begin with ..If I ……………….). 

The papers are collected and its all over at last.

Needless to say, few students managed to correct this sentence.  28 students failed.  Only 16 passed.  Many gave nonsensical answers, with a clear lack of understanding of the questions.  I feel so sorry for the students and their families.  I mentioned the poor results to the headmistress, whose outrageous comment was, ‘That will make them learn in future.’  What about the teachers’ responsibility?  By hook or by crook, I will find a way to divide my classes in the next school year.

On the bright side, one student got a very remarkable 97%.  When I mentioned him to his class teacher, he told me that this boy’s parents died in the civil war while he was still small and he is from another tribal area (Nimule is a Madi tribal area).  Apparently he is top of the class for his other subjects too.  He is a living example of triumph over adversity.

Photo call

I don’t yet have the results of the Primary 4 English exam, but I expect it to be a lot worse than Primary 5.  However, yesterday I invigilated for Primary 4’s Science paper.  This involved going round the class reading the questions to the vast majority of students.  From the answers I could see, there was a complete lack of understanding.  This was their final exam.  At the end of the exam, they had to wait in the exam room to avoid disturbing other exams.  I took the opportunity to give them a treat by taking their photos.  This caused huge excitement.  I got the impression that this was the first time for most of them that they had ever had their photos taken. 

School begins again in mid-February, so it is a long break.  Ample time for my poor students to forget the little they have learnt, ready to start the uphill task again.  I have offered to give some coaching during the holidays, but don’t know if they will take me up on it.