Day 2 - Observing and Teaching

Today we spent all day getting to know different classes, answering questions about Pleckgate and Blackburn and learning more about the school and the education system in the Ivory Coast. We spent the morning in English and Geography lessons and learned a massive amount about how teachers in this country cope with very few facilities. The students in this school are set according to ability just like at Pleckgate although the ability range goes across year groups as there are only 15-25 students in each year. They are kept in roughly similar age groups but you can get a class of 20 students ranging from 11 years old to 14 years old, but they will all be at a similar level. They test all the children at the end of the year and determine sets over the summer break. If any students fail by a large margin they will have to redo the year, this motivate students to work hard in order to not be left behind, Nobody wants to stay behind with the younger students while their friends move up a year!!

the ICT facilities are very limited here at IRMA, although compared to state schools their facilities are very advanced. They have three seperate ICT rooms with a total of 30 computers, all quite old. They use these facilities very well allowing students to gain a base computer knowledge which will help them to develop their skills in working life. The quality of teaching and learning here is extremely good with the absence of distractions such as games on computers, DVDs and mobile phones. It seems that the students have a thirst for learning as they understand it is their gateway to a decent job.

We both enjoyed teaching the chidren about our school, town and country. They were all amazed that the UK has 6 times the population but only a quarter of its land mass, they quite rightly worked out that their economy is dependent on agriculture that takes a massive amount of land and that a large part of the country is unhospitable tropical forest.

After school today we went out to traditional "Maquis" which is a sort of open air bar and had a drink with Monsieur Ble and Monsieur Bekoin the two english teachers. This town is so friendly and people are very welcoming, despite being the only 2 white people in Bassam (as far as I can tell) we are treated as locals which is very nice for us. Tomorrow lessons at IRMA have been suspended as they are preparing for a large certificate ceremony at the local conference centre so we are going to visit the local "village artisanal" (traditional tribal village) in the morning and are going for our Official Royal visit to the tribal King of Bassam!!!! Very exciting and I will post more photos tomorrow.

Make sure you have a look at the new photos on the left (IRMA day 2)

Speak to you all Tomorrow!

PS: feel free to comment or follow this blog so I know someone other than my wife is reading it.....