I am not quite ready to let the stories end, although it is going to take a concentrated effort to find and share. There is no doubt my experiences in Africa have taken a turn. Some of it is due to familiarity, which renders the once magical into the now understood. On the other hand, I have had a few life events that sent me inward rather than outward. Definitely the arrival of the girl has been one of those events. Going back to school is now another.
I realized that my posts over the past 10 years have created habits of writing that I am going to need to overcome. Links become citations, Google searches become academic searches. It is not so different, perhaps, but just more thorough and requiring more structure. On a positive note, I look at an assignment requiring 7-10 pages and my only problem is how I will limit my thoughts to such a short paper.
And of course, as I've already written, Bamako seems to be the quiet years for me. I have not had the opportunity to travel much nor the motivation to see many sights within the city. And now, before we know it, our African journey will take us to yet another country. A new adventure awaits, especially since I had never really planned on visiting Nigeria, and yet, in a few short months, we will be living there full time.
I am wondering what I will remember about Bamako and Malian culture. Once I find out we're leaving, there is always a slight need to pack in a bunch of sensations and experiences. I took several photos of my full studio and Drissa and I will make a short video about our painting together. It is definitely one of the highlights of being here. We both recognize that it is not an everyday opportunity to paint and create with someone on the same canvas. It's not likely to happen again soon for either of us.
There will also be the final exhibition of our work and dance performance. That will feel like a real send off. A finale of sorts.
Until then, I am buys trying to usher my students through the final months of school. Never an easy task in middle school. The students in my performing arts class were preoccupied with the school strikes happening in the city. One student worried that the strikers would show up at our school.
It's not the first time I have heard this. It happened several times in Abidjan as well. The local schools go on strike and then respond, often aggressively, when the private schools don't follow suit. It is a challenging situation to be in, for certain, but forcing schools to close by pulling students out of classes and making threats on campus doesn't seem like it will do much to further the cause.
My students were adamant that the strikers had gone to the French school and tear gas was involved. Perhaps they confused it with this, which seems to discuss parents concerned about the security situation in Bamako and the potential closure of the French school. I searched for news of something more, but was unable to find anything. Which doesn't mean it didn't happen. It just means it is not making headlines. No surprise there.
What did come up in my Google search was a wealth of stories about strikes and the possibility of 'l'année blanche,' meaning a school year wasted. Not enough time in classrooms for children to learn, not open during testing, and no advancement. Everyone will have to repeat, spending next year in the same grade they were in this year.
The articles come from as far back as 2004. These articles are from 2008 and 2017, and in the latter, the role of private schools is explicitly discussed. Many students coming from the north who have fled violence there, were taken in by the public schools for free and this has led to an imbalance of shouldering the responsibility for the advancement of the country between public and private schools. In 2019 the problems continue. Teachers are demanding better working conditions, including increased salary (or even a salary. Demanding pack pay is mentioned, suggesting that teachers are not and have not been getting paid. Housing allowance is also a point.) These are not new problems.
This post from 2012 explains the problem well. Schools take so long to get going, and then the inevitable happens- holidays, political unrest, terrorism- which requires more breaks and before you know it, the year has passed with the number of actual classes held in the single digits. Not much learning exchange takes place and those who do manage to pass, only do so because they have taken it on themselves to figure out the material. Or they have paid.
This notice from Dec 2018 is within this school year and serves to show that multiple disruptions prevent fluid and engaged learning from taking place. A fifteen day strike has been called, to occur in three phases from March to April, which seems to signal no end to the disruptions for students.
The problem, cited here and here is that the children of the government officials are often not in public schools. The end result is that the masses suffer from decisions made by the elite, who are not affected in any way. Parent associations do not seem to be stepping up to provide support either. Overall, the complicated problem, ongoing since 2016 when talks in this round first began, seems bound to continue. The damage to generations of children and the future of the country is at stake.
Meanwhile, as children worldwide protest climate change, Malian students are just hoping for the chance at an uninterrupted education.
