On Thursday afternoon I finally got the opportunity to visit Nehemiah High School. It is a co-educational grade nine to twelve school, a mixture of orphans and fee paying students. 23 Harvesters children currently make the three minute walk there each day.
In South Sudan high school is only for those who have done academically well in grades one to eight and are able to afford the fees and lost income that further schooling entails.
Given the school is only about four years old in its current incarnation and has a repudiation for being the high school that gets the best results in all of Yei, I expected it to be much bigger and more developed, with specialist learning spaces. There essentially just four sandy bottomed classrooms, one for each grade level. All the other buildings I'd seen when waking past are student dorms.
Grades nine and ten have about 130 students in each year level and all students study the same ten subjects for five 45 minute lessons each week. The grades eleven and twelve classes are a bit smaller but will eventually be bigger. Those students choose an Arts or Business stream and study eight subjects from a possible twelve. The four subjects they don't choose are their study lines. I guess timetabling is easier when you only have four classes!
It was interesting talking to the vice principal, who told me that while they know the optimum class size is 45, they'd like to aim for 65, by building four new classrooms, cutting current classes in half. However he expected that when they build the new classrooms they will need to let more students in, as there is such a desperate need for high school spots.
The derelict building was their dining room until the roof was destroyed, now students eat anywhere they can find a spot. The building was originally built buy the UN, hence the colour scheme. This sight had been used for many different purposes over the years.
For my Science teacher friends there is a photo of the one specialist teaching space, a Science lab. It didn't seem to have any equipment. The library consists of a few books for teacher reference in the admin office.
This visit made me feel even more spoilt with all that we have in our schools in Australia.
In South Sudan high school is only for those who have done academically well in grades one to eight and are able to afford the fees and lost income that further schooling entails.
Given the school is only about four years old in its current incarnation and has a repudiation for being the high school that gets the best results in all of Yei, I expected it to be much bigger and more developed, with specialist learning spaces. There essentially just four sandy bottomed classrooms, one for each grade level. All the other buildings I'd seen when waking past are student dorms.
Grades nine and ten have about 130 students in each year level and all students study the same ten subjects for five 45 minute lessons each week. The grades eleven and twelve classes are a bit smaller but will eventually be bigger. Those students choose an Arts or Business stream and study eight subjects from a possible twelve. The four subjects they don't choose are their study lines. I guess timetabling is easier when you only have four classes!
It was interesting talking to the vice principal, who told me that while they know the optimum class size is 45, they'd like to aim for 65, by building four new classrooms, cutting current classes in half. However he expected that when they build the new classrooms they will need to let more students in, as there is such a desperate need for high school spots.
The derelict building was their dining room until the roof was destroyed, now students eat anywhere they can find a spot. The building was originally built buy the UN, hence the colour scheme. This sight had been used for many different purposes over the years.
For my Science teacher friends there is a photo of the one specialist teaching space, a Science lab. It didn't seem to have any equipment. The library consists of a few books for teacher reference in the admin office.
This visit made me feel even more spoilt with all that we have in our schools in Australia.
posted from Bloggeroid
No comments:
Post a Comment