Mr Inspector Man

Jan 23rd

Another good day, for completely different reasons! Today, with Cathy’s help, I began to get my role and work planned out. We walked through the town together to the office and were well installed before Claude arrived. He promptly moved us to another office. Here we have access to computers and printers (but not internet unfortunately). It’s a mark of how on-the-ball he is that instead of delegating to a minion he kept loads of people waiting while he went through in detail with us what he wants us to do.

As a result, and by the end of the day, I have a very official looking letter accrediting me as a school inspector for Muhanga district. In the words of the boss I am « conseiller en matière d’éducation au sein du district. » And I have « la mission de faire inspections pédagogique et administrative des écoles, le suivie et évaluation des activités éducatives et l’analyse des statistiques scolaires afin d’évaluer la qualité de l’enseignement et la gestion scolaires »

Sounds terrifying to me and I’ve no doubt it’s going to put the wind up all the poor headteachers I’m going to visit in the near future. You should see the letter – I have the Rwandan coat of arms at the top!

We’ve decided to focus on schools in one of the remote northern secteurs of the district, an area called Rongi. We are going to get as many inspections in as possible before the rains start in April and make road traffic on dirt roads all but impossible. We’ve picked Rongi because there are some very low achieving schools in this secteur and we want to try and pinpoint why this should be. I am doing the “inspection administratif” which means making sure that all official school documents are up to date and that the school is being efficiently managed. I and Cathy are both observing English and French lessons to try to gauge the quality of classroom experience the local children receive.

I’ve no doubt we are about to get a very rude awakening in terms of what rural primary schooling in Rwanda actually means, and I know we’ll get a lot of things wrong. But you can’t really prepare for this except by getting started and learning as you go along. We want to be as supportive as possible to all the teachers who are struggling against enormous difficulties. We’ve no doubt that between us we’re going to be able to suggest all sorts of ways to improve learning without involving unrealistic amounts of money or equipment. Time will tell, but it’s so good to be actually under way!

On Mondays I’m going to be inspecting secondary schools on my own (Cathy is teaching in a local primary on those days). This is even more of a challenge. All the secondaries are divided into two sections, the “tronc commun” (common core) for the first three years, and then (if they pass the exam) the last three years of secondary are into specialisms such as Biochemistry, Arts, Maths/Physics.

Tuesdays is Gacaca day here in Gitarama so we won’t go into schools; Friday will be office day to write up reports and prepare for our weekends.

Cathy is doing a lot of teacher training courses at weekends, and I’m going to help her on at least some of these. She returns to Canada in the summer and I’ve got a hunch I might be asked to continue her primary methodology work when she’s gone. I’m a bit nervous about that since it’s nearly 40 years since I last taught a class in a primary school, but we’ll see.

Two other good things happened today. Cathy and I went for lunch at the “Restaurant Tranquillité”, a super little place tucked away just behind the main square in Gitarama, behind a cobbler’s shop and a dressmakers. I’ve been wanting to go there ever since I read in the Bradt guidebook that it’s the best place in town. The Rwandan lunches are wholesome, filling and cheap: vegetarian 70p; with meat £1. Life gets better and better!

In the evening Tom and I re-planned out kitchen and lounge with yesterday’s furniture, which seems to have dried out without too much warping. We now have a near-perfect kitchen; a place for everything and everything in its place. Ergonomic, easy to clean. Boy, are we smug tonight! Unfortunately I had a near disaster in the process – I lost my grip on my brand new water filter and the base of one of the filtration candles has sheared through. I can just about get it to hold in position, but, to be honest, it’s the boiling of water that’s important and if the dodgy filter lets a bit of (boiled) sediment through then what does it matter?

By the way, more thunder and rain today. This is supposed to be the short dry season! What the hell’s happening to our weather. It wasn’t just cool today on the Equator, it was ruddy well COLD!

High point of the day – nearly everything, really
Low point – seeing, in slow motion, the water filter crash on the floor, soaking everything and knowing I’d probably ruined the filter candle.