Sept. 5: On School

On School

Sept. 5: So we're sitting around at supper eating spaghetti, and Jermaya asks us about tutoring. So here are the deets on school & tutoring!

Jermaya: Jermaya attends a K-12 private school. Lots of kids hire private tutors for their classes. The teacher comes to the student's house for any where from 2-4 hours at a time, 4 times a month. Sometimes the tutoring sessions are done in groups, and those sessions are cheaper than the private ones. They call them private lessons. A month of private lessons would be about 200 Egyptian pounds or $30. A group of about 10 students might cost 50 Egyptian pounds. The higher the grade, usually the more expensive the tutor. Kids do not get to choose their classes at school: social studies, science, math, Arabic, German or French, English, and religion. In 11th grade you get some choices, like algebra or geometry and physics or biology. History, geography, or philosophy is another choice. School is held from 7:30 to 2:30 Sunday through Thursday. Church is held on Friday. Classes go from Sept. 15 - Jan. 15. Christmas is celebrated Jan. 7. Classes resume at the end of January and goes until the middle of May.

Alex: Alex attends a government public school. It is also  a K-12 school. Public school is cheap.There is no private tutoring, unless they are preparing for a final exam. In middle school, you study 14 subjects: interscience, religion, intro to technology, civic education, French, English, math, Housa,  , agriculture or home economics, and the Muslims study Arabic. They study so many subjects so that they can see what they like. In high school, you have 4 classes: science, commerce, technology, and arts(politics). The classes you study depend upon what you want to do in the future. Kids go to school from 8-1:50. Classes are held from September-December 10. Then from January 15-April (stop before Easter). Third session is May- end of July.

Jamo: Most kids go to public school. Classes include choices such as band, agriculture, business, shop, art, Spanish, and choir. Mandatory classes include math, science, history, government, English. Kids do not generally hire tutors. Classes go from 8:15 to 3:15. We go to school from the 3rd week in August to the 3rd week in December. There are 2 weeks off at Christmas, then we go until the 1st week in June. Sometimes we get a week off for spring break, but not always.

Look at this amazing sunset! We were sitting around talking about the twins and adoption and fostering, and this sunset spurred an entirely new conversation. Ndeenga had told us that the sunsets in Tanzania were all the same. Jermaya said that the same is true in Egypt, that the sunsets are almost always the same. Alex said the sunsets in Nigeria are mostly the same but do have clouds sometimes.