We began final exams today for the Std. 1- Std. 7 children. The three teachers who were gone to help proctor exams at the secondary school are back now so we didn’t know if they would actually need us to help out, but we went down to see just in case. Well, of course they found work for us, haha! What were we thinking? It’s all good though. I am really glad to be able to help out anyway we can. That’s why I’m here. I went and proctored the exams for one of the std. 4 classes. Their teacher, Mrs. Njururi, didn’t show up that morning. We’re not really sure why, but whatever. Jenn sat in on one of the std. 6 classes. Their teacher, Mr. Kataka, was there, but he said he had to leave for some reason and asked if one of us could go to his class for him. I hate to think what happens when we’re not here! So we had two exams in the morning and one after lunch; same as every time we have given exams. We got started with the exams a little late because some children hadn’t paid their exams fees yet so they were sent home to get money. Primary school is “free,” but still they have to pay for every exam they take. That’s a lot of money for these families considering how often the children are tested. But the staff has no computer and not even a typewriter so it would be nearly impossible for them to write out seven exams per child so it is how it is. Armstrong has a typewriter in the office that isn’t being used though so I’m thinking about maybe inquiring about that for the teachers to use. We’ll see. Anyway, Jenn and I went through some of the English exams to make sure the answers the teachers were given were correct. Usually the teachers have to do the exams and come up with the answers, but since this is the end-of-year exam and every student throughout Kenya will be taking the same exam, it comes with the answers. Well, Jenn went through the Std. 6 test and marked all the right answers and then she checked it against the answer key they were given. Um, yeah…out of 50 questions, 40 of them in the key were wrong! What? Ten questions were correct…ten!! If she hadn’t gone through that test those students would be marked wrong for all those questions just because the answer key is wrong. We were floored. This was supposed to be the “official” test from whatever “powers that be” in the education system…and 40 answers were wrong. All I have to say is TIA. Things like this just beg the question “Is there any hope for Africa?” Only the Lord knows.
