I attended a School Performance Assessment Meeting (SPAM) for Nangodi Circuit on Tuesday. These meeting are attended by a representative group of students, parents, community leaders, teachers and the headteachers. They meet with the Circuit Supervisor and another officer from GES to look at how well the Junior High Schools in the area are performing and identify issues that need to be addressed to bring about improvement. The meeting started at just after 11am and continued until after 4pm without a break. Needless to say, by the end of the meeting the room was very hot and people were very thirsty, hungry and tired!
It was interesting to hear the different views. Each group came in for its own share of criticism from the other parties present. Unfortunately, after taking a considerable amount of time to come up with a long list of problems, people were too tired to think creatively about possible solutions. The photo below shows the concerns voiced by the teachers (left) and the parents (right). I must admit, I don’t agree with the teachers when they suggest that beating the children will help improve standards!
The other major talking point this week is the change in the weather – it has become even hotter! Despite it not yet being March – the hottest month of the year – the temperature has now climbed to well over 44 degrees throughout the day. It is now expected to stay like this until the beginning of April when the first rains usually begin.
If it wasn’t difficult enough sleeping in the heat of the night under a mosquito net that largely negates the cooling effect of the ceiling fan, the arrival of the chap below as a mate for our hen has made sure that everyone is awake bright and early. So long as they are happy together, that is all that matters!
