Teaching Science At Tondoro Combined School

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES IN TEACHING SCIENCE AT TONDORO COMBINED SCHOOL by Alois H Kaporo and Reuben Sirinji Rundu College of Education, Namibia November 2008

Educational context of Tondoro Combined School As part of my School Based Studies requirement at Rundu College Education I spent three weeks in September 2008 at Tondoro Combined School. This school is located in the rural area of Tondoro village in the Kavango Region of Namibia. It is 130km west of Rundu town and 30km east of Nkurenkuru town. Tondoro combined school was established in the year 1976 with grades 1-4 only. It started with 4 teachers only and the principal was Mr Adam Kabono. The school initially enrolled 121 learners: 58 boys and 63 girls. It became a combined school in 2000 starting from grade 1 to 10. There are six buildings in the school ground which is divided in to two sections. Two buildings are used by the lower primary grades and four by the upper primary and secondary grades. They are two School Principals, one for the lower primary grades 1-4 and the other for the upper primary and secondary grades 5-10. The principal for the lower primary phase is Mrs Christine Sipumbu, and for the upper primary and secondary grades 5-10 is Mr Munhwa. The school lacks many resources. There is no library, laboratory, chairs, and desks. They lack learning materials like books. Only a few text books are kept by the teachers for use by different classes of the same grade. Coming to chairs, learners sit on benches and some sit on the floor after they get tired of sharing one chair. There is only one computer and one photocopy machine in the whole school. They use teacher centred method during teaching, this happens maybe because there are few learning materials in the school. Though they got few learning materials, the school has an encouraging mission statement. It says “Provide learners with good education through co-operation with parents, community members, teachers and learners to assist the nation as whole”. If they could really follow their mission statement and put it in to practice, the school would succeed well in educational performance.

Strengths in the teaching of Maths and Science For the three weeks of September 2008 I observed teachers teaching Maths and Science at Tondoro Combined School. Teachers try their best to teach Maths and Science well in a way that learners can understand better, so that they can do things on their own. The following are some of the strengths in the teaching of Mathematics and Science the school. a. Working without a calculator The teacher taught learners how to solve calculation without using a calculator. Learners in the class do not have calculators, they therefore use their brains. This is good because it gives a chance for learners to make their brains useful rather than relying on a machine which is already programmed to give

answers. It helps those learners who cannot afford to buy calculators due to financial problems or waste their time struggling to find a calculator. b. Time management Teachers keep time. They calculate time according to the work that they give to learners and the work that they do with learners in the class. When they give activities they set up a time on which the activity is going to be completed, which means if it is time up, every learner should stop writing and hand in the activity. This is good; it makes learners to get used to working with time and try to solve problems by thinking intensely about things (brainstorming). c. Giving summaries Teachers give summary notes after the completion of each chapter. It is good that learners have to be given summaries like for Natural Science, Life Science and Physical Science to consolidate what they have done already. d. Activities and tests Teachers give class activities and tests in Math and Science subjects. Learners perform well in class activities. This is good because the marks that they get in tests and class activities contributes to their Cass marks and it also assess to see if they understand to what you have been teaching them. e. Compensatory teaching Teachers set up afternoon classes for compensatory teaching. They repeat Maths and Science topics that learners did not understand well in the class. This is good because the slow learners will also understand better if they repeat what they have been taught already so that they can reach to the level of others, to be equal.

Weaknesses or challenges to the teaching I noticed some negative factors that affect the teaching and learning at Tondoro Combined School. They include the following: 1. Ignorance Ignorance is one of the facts letting down the learning status at this school. Learners ignore Mathematics as if it is not a subject they need to study. Learners don't practise different methods to answer Mathematic questions. In the end learners fail. 2. Shyness Learners are afraid to ask questions about what they do not understand. When teaching and you try to ask them if they understand, they just answer yes. But if you start to ask them questions about what you taught them they won't reply. This affects them more in the exam because they did not ask what they did not know. 3. Laziness Some teachers are lazy; they could not finish a topic but tend to rather leave it for the next day. This puts learner behind with school work. Some learners are lazy; they cannot do their class activities and even cannot write their

summaries. Later on when the exam approaches, no Cass marks and no summaries for revision reading, learners fail. 4. Learning materials The school does not have enough books for learners to read. No library or laboratory in the school. Teaching aids are not used and experiments for Science are not carried out for better understanding of learners to some topics. 5. Dodging Learners dodge classes a lot and teachers can't control them. They use to miss important information that others gain in the lessons and in the end they fail because they know nothing due to the fact that they did not attend classes. 6. Absenteeism Some learners stay absent for more than two days. It is already a risk when a learner comes back because no one will repeat for him/her the topics that others have covered in his/her absence. Such a learner already stands the risk of failing. 7. Chairs and Desks Not enough chairs and desks in classes. Some learners sit on the floor. Learners cannot write well without a desk and a chair, it is uncomfortable. This takes time for learners to complete writing their summaries and class activities. Learners end up writing in bad handwriting and rough diagrams which may affect their marks. 8. Jokes in the classroom Learners spend most of the time in the class just joking with other learners while the teacher is teaching them. This attracts other learners' attention not to concentrate. Some learners like to make jokes with the teacher, this disturbs the lesson not to be concluded then they stay behind. 9. Beliefs Learners are shy to mention male and female reproductive organs in the class. They do not answer when they are asked to mention the names of the parts of the male and female reproductive systems. All these happen because they believe that; if you mention it then you are insulting and it is even a sin. 10. Take study time for granted Learners use study time to play around with others instead taking their books to read. This slows down their performance in Math and Science subjects.

Possible solutions to observed challenges to effective teaching I believe that all aspects of observed weaknesses are not permanent but can be dealt with certain ways. For learners who believe that Mathematics cannot be studied, they need to be given activities about the topics that they never covered. With that you can prove them that Mathematics can be studied for you to know it better. Always

put shy learners in mixed gender groups and give them topics on which everyone will be given a chance to present to the class. Other learners should fire in questions. In that way learners will become more self-confident. Teachers need to be creative to make teaching aids for themselves, such as concrete materials to make the learners understand better. Some times send learners to collect different objects to be used as teaching aids for Maths and Science. Teachers should try to make use of the school fee money to buy teaching materials like materials to be used in the laboratory for experiments. Regarding books and chairs; the school must put in a request to the government so that they can be helped. Make contributions in the school to raise money to buy chairs and desks. Teachers should avoid making jokes with learners. They should manage the class well to make sure that no learner is making noise and that every learner is paying attention to the lesson. Coming to study time, teachers should always be there to control the learners while they study. Learners start to be serious with studying when they see a teacher. To dodgers and absenteeism, always paste their names on the notice board so that everyone could see their names. This make them feel ashamed then they stop. If they still continue with the dodging and absenteeism then refer them to the principal to talk to them. If they still continue then the principal will put it into the hands of the disciplinary committee where by the disciplinary committee is going to include the parents of the child if he/she continues. With all that long process, the learners will stop being absent to school and dodging classes. The most important way to deal with the performance of the learners is to encourage learners to keep up with their studies. Set up parental meetings with role models who have studied better to address and advise them on how to handle their studies and all the advantages of studying. Long live Tondoro Combined School.