Schools in Kenya

Head Teacher Mr. Chumba and Founder Chris Cheboiboch.  Chris, who twice placed second in Boston and New York Marathons, used his running earnings to found the school.

Uhuru and Apollo attended Salaba Academy, a private school that includes preschool to Standard 8 (equal to 8^th grade).  I visited several times and had many discussions with people about education in Kenya.  Here are some of my impressions:

1)  The teachers’ role is different than in the United States.  The teachers would present a concept and assign work.  Then the teachers would go to the staff room, which is somewhat of a misnomer.  In the US the staff room is a teachers lounge.  In Kenya the staff room is a shared office.

2)  Discipline is very strict.  Students are expected to work, and if they do not, they get caned.  Students stand up when a teacher or adult enters the classroom.  The following dialogue occurs:

Teacher:  “Good morning class.  How are you?”

Class: “Good morning, sir.  We are fine, thank you.”

Teacher:  “You may sit down.”

Class: “Thank you, sir”

There is absolutely NO talking when a teacher is talking.  One morning I saw all 300 students at Salaba at an outdoor assembly.  There was no talking at all.  The head teacher spoke quietly to the students.  There was no background noise.

Salaba student body at the assembly

3)  There is corporal punishment in school.  One day Uhuru came home with a science practice test.  She had scored about 20%.  She was determined to study because the teacher said anyone who scored less than 80% on the final test would be caned.  (She scraped through with an 80%.)

4)  Information like test scores that would be private in the US are public in Kenya.  In fact, the semester final exam scores of every student in the school are posted outside the head teacher’s office for all visitors to see.

5)  There is a lot of rote memorization.  Students copy passages and information from the teacher and then put the information on their tests.  In math students in the United States draw pictures and use models to understand how to multiply fractions and why the method works.  In Kenya, students are taught: “multiply the top and bottom.”

Mercy and Hilda, two of Uhuru's classmates, studying.

6)  Kenyan students are very dedicated.  On my morning runs I would see Kenyan students walking to school at 6AM.  The distance they walked varied quite a bit, but many walked several miles.  Boarding students at Salaba are up before 5AM.  During the time between terms there is a special session called “tuition.”  During tuition students are in class from 6AM-9PM.

7)  Students take on other responsibilities.  Boarding students must wash their clothes by hand.  Students living at home do chores and help care for their siblings.

8)  No pampering.  In the assembly, the head teacher addressed two issues: “Look at your shoes.  Look at your shirts.  You are dirty.  You have time in the afternoon before supper.  You need to wash your clothes.  Wash your shoes.”  “The examination results for Standard 7 are not good.  You need to study more.”  Messages are not sugar-coated.  Grade inflation does not exist in Kenya.  The 2009 secondary school graduation scores for the Keiyo district are shown below: 2568 students took the exam.  6 students earned A’s and 34 earned A-‘s.  C+ is considered the pass mark to enter university.

9)  There are huge variations in access to quality education in Kenya.  Students who earn A’s and A-‘s on their secondary exams earn a full scholarship to university.  This should allow children from all over Kenya to access higher education, but the top universities are dominated by the wealthier children from urban areas.  There are huge differences in the funding and quality of schools in Kenya.  The 2009 analysis above shows that not one student from the bottom two schools passed the exam.

10)  There is a huge teacher shortage in Kenya.  In some schools there is not always money for salaries, or the school may run out of money.  I read an article in the newspaper written by a teacher.  He wrote that the head teacher admonished two teachers: “You need to have your lesson plans in order.”  The teachers responded “We have not been paid for three months.  Once we are paid, we will put our plans in order.”

Classroom.  Not many supplies!

11)  Even the wealthier schools, like Salaba Academy, have little compared to American schools.  Salaba actually had a computer lab with about 15 PCs.  But the standard classroom had desks and a blackboard painted on the wall.  That’s it.  We complain about school funding in the US, but even the most run down school in the US looks like a palace compared to most schools in Kenya.

Running with the Somalis

It’s July 4^th and we’re at home in Ellensburg.  We spent the entire month of June traveling, first in Kenya and then in Greece.  We arrived home on Thursday after a long day that started in Athens and ended here.  It’s good to be home.  Uhuru is reconnecting with friends and animals.  Apollo is reconnecting with friends and pursuing several passions: taking things apart, baking, and water fights.  Carey and I are enjoying seeing friends again and trying to simplify our lives.  After living with a small set of possessions for almost 4 months, we arrived home and thought “why do we have all this stuff?”

I didn’t get much posted on the blog in June.  It seemed that these three factors never came together: internet access, charged computer batteries, and time.  I’ve got several more reflections on Kenya and also on Greece that I want to post.  I figure I’ll try to post them over the next couple weeks.  After all, this blog has been like a journal and since returning home I’ve had lots of people tell me they’ve enjoyed it.  So, without further ado, another blog entry: Running with the Somalis.

Runners from all over Kenya, all over Africa, and all over the world come to Iten to train.  We had three neighbors from Somalia.  They were very friendly and had different backgrounds.

Abdi (Netherlands-Somalia), Rashid (Kenya) and Mohammed (Somalia) on a recovery jog

Abdi was living in our house when we arrived.  We moved into two empty bedrooms and Abdi stayed in the third while we were there.  Abdi is 21; he left Somalia when he was a small child and moved to the Netherlands where he is now a citizen.  (At the time there were both widespread famine and battles between warlords in Somalia.)  He played soccer until he was 18.  One summer his coach told him to run to keep in shape.  After one week of running a friend convinced him to do a 5k.  He won in just over 17 minutes.  Then next week he did another in about 16:20.  The next week, his third week running, he ran 15:50.  He decided to switch from soccer to running.  He has since run about 13:40 for 5k and 29:10 for 10k.

Abdi was very knowledgable about running and exercise.  One day while doing core exercises he spent several minutes helping another neighbor perform “Jane Fondas,” a core strength exercise, with proper form.  Although he often ran very hard, he was careful to take his easy days easy.  “If you run with the group every day, you will become overtrained or injured.  Someone in the group was resting yesterday and they will push the pace today.  When it is supposed to be an easy run, take it easy.”  I went on several easier runs and some hill workouts with Abdi.  I figured there wasn’t much point in doing the harder runs with him because we are such different speeds.  But one time we went on a run that kept speeding up.  I got dropped and Abdi kept speeding up and finished well under 5 minute/mile pace.  After a few weeks Abdi went back to the Netherlands for a few weeks to race.

Abdi returned with two friends: Mohammed and Bashir, both also 21.  Bashir had left Somalia as a child and moved to Belgium.  Mohammed had only left a year and a half ago.  It was their first time training in Kenya.  Mohammed moved into the room in our house and Abdi and Bashir stayed in a new apartment about 20ft from our front door.  The first week they were there Osama Bin Laden was killed.  Mohammed, who had left Somalia most recently, was very happy.  He said there was a recent influx of Islamic extremists into Somalia, and that is a large part of why he left.  He said that terrorists make it so hard for him: “I mean, my name is Mohammed!  These terrorists make people suspicious of me.”

Mohammed, Abdi, Yusef (Kenyan Neighbor), and Bashir offering to share their dinner.

Mohammed, Bashir and Abdi were generous neighbors.  Abdi bought a goat and had a barbeque.  They shared the meat with us.  Another day they came back from Eldoret, a larger city, and were excited to report that they had found someone selling camel milk.  They brought back a gallon, and shared it with us.  (I couldn’t tell much difference, but we drank it with tea so that might have masked subtleties.)  Bashir had a stomach ache, and he thought the camel milk would help.  His stomach ache persisted, so I don’t think it did.  They invited us for tea or to share meals often.  The Somalis serve their meals in a large serving dish.  Everyone washes their hands and then eats from the communal plate.  I joked that “if one person is sick, everyone is sick.”

Abdi, Mohammed (in the plastic bag shirt), and Bashir

In many ways, a 21-year old Somali is like a 21-year old anywhere.  They listed to hip-hop (sometimes in English, sometimes in Arabic.)   They watched Adam Sandler movies that Abdi had on his laptop.  They are on facebook.  They had silly ideas sometimes: one day Mohammed decided that if he ran wearing a plastic bag for a shirt he would lose weight.

Like the Kenyans, they were totally dedicated to their running.  They usually trained twice a day, and really focused on resting in between.  I went with them to the track one day and as they did their last workout before returning to Europe (this was about 4 days before a race): 3x800, 3x600, 3x300.  They were training with a New Zealander, a Sudanese guy, and several Kenyans.  It’s a good thing I didn’t try to run with them, because they were flying!

They got back and raced.  Bashir and Mohammed got new 5k PRs in 13:50.  Abdi was a few seconds behind, but he was ahead of them the next week.  These times are national level, but all these athletes need to get into the 13:10s to qualify for world events.  But perhaps we’ll see them representing Somalia, Belgium, or the Netherlands a year or two down the road.