I have, however, contributed to the writing of the terminal exam, and advised a student on a topic for his final project. Other than that, the last month has been entirely taken up with students grading the national exams for the nations primary schools, tomorrow they start exams, and the days in between they were cleaning the college and I guess studying on their own.
I have discovered I think it is somewhat unethical to not teach students for a month and then demand they take an important test.
Today's important event was that the students had to pass an inspection in which they were told to show teachers that they had all the books required for the subject in which they specialize. I have mixed feelings about this. Yes, these are teachers. They may be going to teach in rural areas in which their personal books may be the only textbooks around. For the teachers to have these books is important. It bothers me the infantilizing way the college goes about ensuring that these future teachers do have books. It really bothers me that the college teachers will spend time humiliating a student who didn't have books--a student in clothes that didn't fit, and a jacket that was stained and had buttons close to falling off. (Tanzanians take a lot of care in their appearance, so that's unusual.) I realize I have no useful contextual data, like the cost of the textbooks this student was supposed to purchase, I don't know what tuition fees for this college are like, I have no idea what this student is like as a student or a person, or his name even, but the episode still bothered me.
At least the other day one of my pressing job responsibilities was to chase an owl out of the computer lab. An owl! A very pretty barn owl (I think) with a lovely cute heart-shaped face.
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