Virtual Eritrea

Today we were at Keren Secondary High School. It has bin a very interesting  day, and we have learned a lot. When we came to the school, all pupils sat together at the play ground. They have this sort of assemble every day. It was around 900 pupils, and they all wore their blue school uniforms, so it looked like a blue ocean.

But their uniforms are often in a bad shape and they are of different models. But  the pupils do not care, the important thing is that they have a school to go to.

Any way, the headmaster presented us for all this pupils and teachers and told them about the purpose of our visiting. He told them that they represented all schools in Eritrea and they should make us feel welcome. But I don't think he had to tell them that, the Eritrean people are always very nice and friendly. Mats and Kerstin followed a history teacher on his lessons.

All the teachers had the same method of
their teaching. Since the school can't afford books for the students, the teachers had to write everything on the blackboard and then the students must copy the text in their own books. The teachers have got a book in every subject where the government has decided exactly what they should write down on the blackboard.
Then they repeat everything lots of times.

In the end of every term they have exams with multiple choice questions based on the texts. To be able to reach the university the students have to have very high marks since the university only can welcome 800 students a year. If a student fails he has to do the military service for 18 months and then make another try. This makes the students very motivated for their studies.

We talked to the headmaster about the improvements that has been done in the school since the war. He showed us how the students had planted trees in their spare time and also made a basketball ground out of sand and rocks from the mountains. He also told us that they had built a wall around the school yard since they earlier had problems with goats, camels and other animals coming into the
classrooms and disturbing the students. The headmaster had gathered five of the eleventh grade students and we asked them about their thoughts of the future. They
all wanted to go to the university and they asked us for advice how to reach it.

We also discussed family planning and they where surprised that many families in Sweden only have two children and they couldn't understand why. We got their
addresses as they wanted penfriends from our schools in Sweden.

We, David and Fredrik , followed a math teacher. We went to three classes with the math teacher. He told us about his teaching. He usually decides what to do in
the evening, then he does the same thing with all the classes the next day. In Sweden the teacher makes his or her lesson depending on how far the students have advanced.

We held a geography lesson and of course we spoke about Sweden. The pupils
were very curios. They asked some questions and then we could ask some of the
questions that Kidlink schools had sent us. We send the answers tomorrow.

We, Maria and Ida, enjoyed the class 10 d. The age for the 10th class is 16, but
because of the war some of the pupils are older. The students had six periods, each
40 minutes, with only one break in 30 minutes. The pupils stayed in the same
classroom the whole day, only the teachers moved. Even if it was around 50,
maybe more, pupils in this class, all pupils sat concentrated and listened to the
teacher. All lessons are held in English because the teachers (and the government)
think that English is a useful language, and it is. The pupils were very interested to
hear about Swedish schools, so we answered their questions.

The students were very nice and not afraid of making contact. Some pupils (Elsa,
Ramel and Berhalne) showed us the "Cafe" where they used to eat in their breaks.
Berhalne insisted to buy us sandwiches, but he had no money to buy a sandwich
for himself.....Then we exchanged addresses, and they also wanted to write to our
schools and get letters back from us. We were very positive to this. Then they told
us about themselves and we about us. They said that they normally go home after
school and help their families with the work. We felt very spoiled when we told
them about our spare time.....

After the break we left, but we will be back in the class tomorrow, and we look forward to it.

Greetings from Mats, Kerstin, Ida, Maria, Fredrik and David