Form four has finished NECTA! The NECTA (the Tanzanian National Exams) is a set of exams in each subject that students take at certain grade levels: year 4 and 7 in primary school, year 2 and 4 in secondary school, and year 6 in A-levels (college prep; we follow the British system here). The form 4 exams are a very big deal as the scores on these exams will determine what schools the students can get into for A-levels or colleges as well as what subjects they've scored high enough in to study there. For example, if someone wants to be a doctor, they need to study sciences: physics, chemistry and biology, but if their scores in one or more of those subjects aren't high enough, they might only qualify to study a different three subjects and so will have to go a different career direction. So, it's been a lot of study and stress for our graduating students!
But today, they are finally free. After finishing, Benedict and Salum stuck their student numbers (exams are recorded by number, so that there will be less bias from the graders, knowing only a number and not a name which might tell them if the student is a girl or boy or from certain tribes) on their backs and wore them around for a while. Not sure why, but then students are always doing strange things.
The students were being a bit silly, but I don't blame them as they've been working so hard on exams for the last week and a half. Finally free! Now all that remains is returning books, emptying out lockers, packing and having a final special dinner with the teachers tomorrow night before they head home on Thursday night or Friday morning.
Below, Benedict is wearing a mask today. Full-scale mask wearing never caught on here, especially as the official policy here is that we don't have corona virus any more (an honestly, nobody around here seems to), but the idea of wearing a mask if you are coughing a lot to stop the spread of even just colds and flus has caught on just a bit.
Below: How many photos do I have of these two?? Gabriel and Salum are two of the biggest hams around here; I swear they can smell a camera coming out from across campus. It'll be weird to not have them in nearly every picture next year!
Salum insisted on turning the camera around and getting a photo of me, too. And the unsuspecting preform student who just happened to be standing next to me at the moment.
We heard a commotion outside; normally a couple of students have the job (it's an elected position on the student council) to ring the bell for classtimes, lunch, etc., so not just everyone gets to ring it. However, to celebrate with form four, the time keeper on duty let Baraka ring the bell for lunch. We remembered why we don't let Baraka ring bells. Nah, he did fine, maybe a little overenthusiastic, but I have to give him a hard time. Salum decided we needed a photo of Baraka ringing the bell, so here he is holding the handle pretending that he is still ringing it.
I'll miss this class, but I'm happy for them to finally finish and go to have a nice long break! (A really really really long break--form five doesn't start until July or August. They'll be bored out of their minds in a week.)
