Degan High School (at last)
The first stop in Degan today is the High School – made it at last! I am not sure if some or all of the reason for the repeated delay in delivering the goods here earlier in the week is the absence of the principle. He has just returned from Addis where he graduated with a degree – in Physics if I recall correctly.
I’d love to know more about this – if he had to manage study at a distance without the mod cons that others take for granted for online learning, at the same time as running a school with 1500 students and very limited resources.
Like the primary school, this one runs two shifts a day to accommodate the large number of students who come to study here from the surrounding kebeles (districts). Unlike the primary, this school has just begun using distance education technology referred to locally as ‘plasma screen’. This involves lessons beamed out by satellite from major centres to rural schools. The technology and the teaching method are new and yet to have teething problems ironed out it seems. However, it works at a basic level and that is quite amazing given the primitive state of most of the technology that is visible in these environs. I am confident that it will be made to work well in the hands of these capable and resourceful people in the not too distant future.
Education is clearly a community priority and when I talk to students, they have strongly stated requests for modernization of the school, curriculum related textbooks, resources and more classrooms and teachers to allow them to study up to grade 11 – the final year of secondary education. For the past two years, the additional classrooms and teachers have been respectively built and hired just in time to allow the top year of students to continue. Funds for further expansion have run out two years short of the target. The only option for those wishing to continue is to leave home to complete their studies in another town. Needless to say this is expensive and beyond the means of many poor families, leaving many willing but unable. Driving in and out of Kombolche, it is clear that some students walk a long way to school. From Degan to the nearest high school the distance makes this impossible.
A conversation with the principal reveals similar requests, mainly more resources and teachers to allow the school to manage increasing student numbers and valid aspirations. What the students have told me is well rehearsed as they recently completed a project focused on their Millenium Goals.
The new millennium started in Ethiopia on September 11th 2007 by the calendar observed by much of the world. Just over a month before our arrival. I got a distinct feeling that the students aspirations were much more than just the product of a recent exercise. They appeared to be very well informed about standards in the rest of the world and just how limiting the situation in their own country and region is by comparison. Informed though not at all resigned or accepting. Driven is perhaps more appropriate a term. The questions they posed were tough ones. Basically they wanted to know why we had come, how standards we saw in Degan compared to where we come from and what power I / we have to help drive the development they see as so essential in their home town. The best I could offer was information that we are a small organization with little power and few resources, but that the little that DESTA and its ancestors have contributed in the past has helped a lot in bringing them to where they are now. I don’t try to explain the starfish poem and wonder later if I should as story telling seems to be a recognized for of communication.
The Deputy Principle has organized a group of the highest-grade students to talk to me (video clip to follow shortly).
I did my best to explain to him what I wanted – i.e. to have the students tell their own story. I had an idea that I might work with them over the course of a week or even a few days, get them to script, shoot and edit their own story using the video and digital cameras and the donated laptop. It has taken so long to actually get to the point of having this discussion that the idea is now impossible. It is challenging enough to try to explain the concept to someone who has never used a video camera and maybe never taken a photograph either. Now I am here with a strict limit of less than an hour to leave enough time to complete business at the Health Centre then return to Kombolche to catch Ato Endalamaw at the Concern Office. He has agreed to act as Mediator in case of any dispute between parties to the Ambulance Management MoU. The document has been changed accordingly and now he has to sign it also. I have become accustomed to the pace and don’t have a problem with it, though I would have loved to spend more with the students, who are obviously bright, passionate and ready to challenge.
So in that hour I have to show a group of teachers how to use the donated laptop, talk to the students, make a courtesy call with the others, to the recently constructed British Airways sponsored library. The sign on the walls will be photographed to take back to BA Community relations.
Next (a final) stop at Degan Health Centre.
I’d love to know more about this – if he had to manage study at a distance without the mod cons that others take for granted for online learning, at the same time as running a school with 1500 students and very limited resources.
Like the primary school, this one runs two shifts a day to accommodate the large number of students who come to study here from the surrounding kebeles (districts). Unlike the primary, this school has just begun using distance education technology referred to locally as ‘plasma screen’. This involves lessons beamed out by satellite from major centres to rural schools. The technology and the teaching method are new and yet to have teething problems ironed out it seems. However, it works at a basic level and that is quite amazing given the primitive state of most of the technology that is visible in these environs. I am confident that it will be made to work well in the hands of these capable and resourceful people in the not too distant future.
Education is clearly a community priority and when I talk to students, they have strongly stated requests for modernization of the school, curriculum related textbooks, resources and more classrooms and teachers to allow them to study up to grade 11 – the final year of secondary education. For the past two years, the additional classrooms and teachers have been respectively built and hired just in time to allow the top year of students to continue. Funds for further expansion have run out two years short of the target. The only option for those wishing to continue is to leave home to complete their studies in another town. Needless to say this is expensive and beyond the means of many poor families, leaving many willing but unable. Driving in and out of Kombolche, it is clear that some students walk a long way to school. From Degan to the nearest high school the distance makes this impossible.
A conversation with the principal reveals similar requests, mainly more resources and teachers to allow the school to manage increasing student numbers and valid aspirations. What the students have told me is well rehearsed as they recently completed a project focused on their Millenium Goals.
The new millennium started in Ethiopia on September 11th 2007 by the calendar observed by much of the world. Just over a month before our arrival. I got a distinct feeling that the students aspirations were much more than just the product of a recent exercise. They appeared to be very well informed about standards in the rest of the world and just how limiting the situation in their own country and region is by comparison. Informed though not at all resigned or accepting. Driven is perhaps more appropriate a term. The questions they posed were tough ones. Basically they wanted to know why we had come, how standards we saw in Degan compared to where we come from and what power I / we have to help drive the development they see as so essential in their home town. The best I could offer was information that we are a small organization with little power and few resources, but that the little that DESTA and its ancestors have contributed in the past has helped a lot in bringing them to where they are now. I don’t try to explain the starfish poem and wonder later if I should as story telling seems to be a recognized for of communication.
The Deputy Principle has organized a group of the highest-grade students to talk to me (video clip to follow shortly).
I did my best to explain to him what I wanted – i.e. to have the students tell their own story. I had an idea that I might work with them over the course of a week or even a few days, get them to script, shoot and edit their own story using the video and digital cameras and the donated laptop. It has taken so long to actually get to the point of having this discussion that the idea is now impossible. It is challenging enough to try to explain the concept to someone who has never used a video camera and maybe never taken a photograph either. Now I am here with a strict limit of less than an hour to leave enough time to complete business at the Health Centre then return to Kombolche to catch Ato Endalamaw at the Concern Office. He has agreed to act as Mediator in case of any dispute between parties to the Ambulance Management MoU. The document has been changed accordingly and now he has to sign it also. I have become accustomed to the pace and don’t have a problem with it, though I would have loved to spend more with the students, who are obviously bright, passionate and ready to challenge.
So in that hour I have to show a group of teachers how to use the donated laptop, talk to the students, make a courtesy call with the others, to the recently constructed British Airways sponsored library. The sign on the walls will be photographed to take back to BA Community relations.
Next (a final) stop at Degan Health Centre.
posted by Cathy Gunn at
November 14, 2007
2 Comments:
Cathy
Thanks so much for keeping this superb blog. It is an amazing account of our trip. As I read it I feel I am back in Degan again.
What a fabulous record of all the events.
Andrew
Pleased you are enjoying reading Andrew - you can probably imagine how much I enjoy writing it. It keeps the place alive for me and the conviction to get that ambulance strong!
C
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