Faith Christian Academy

I spent almost every day at Faith Christian Academy, a K-12 private school in Mtsiliza. We spent the first week just observing - there was a lot to take in. On a superficial level, the classrooms had dirt or broken cement floors and were lit by the open doorway and window holes. The tin roofs also let in some light and rain in places, but when it rained you couldn't hear anything anyway, so the dripping didn't matter so much. Most students had desks, although some had to share benches in the back. Classrooms held anywhere from 12 to 49 students.

Students came to school carrying their exercise notebooks (paper folded in half and stapled) and pens in plastic tourist bags. They study 11 subjects total: Math, Science, Chichewa, English, Social Studies, History, Agriculture, and Bible Knowledge are the ones I remember. When they have a question, the students approach the teacher, kneel on the ground, and say, "madam?" When the teacher deigns to look down and excuse the student to the restroom, the student runs out.

The style of education is largely direct instruction, resulting from the influence of Dr. Livingstone. He instituted a British-style education system in Malawi in the mid-1800s, and it's stuck. The teacher lectures, the students listen and take notes. The teacher asks questions, the student answers them. The government issues exams, the students take them and either advance to the next grade or repeat the grade.

After observing various classes, mostly secondary level, for a week, Nichole and I started planning a teacher workshop. Being a mere student teacher, this may seem a little presumptuous. It definitely felt weird. But because FCA is a private school, the teachers don't need certification, and most of them have had no teacher training. We've been drowning in teacher training for the last seven months. So we just make a workshop to show them some stuff that we've learned about making sure students know what's going on, different assessments, and how to plan lessons.

Our last week, we did soe English/literacy lessons for the elementary students. The best quotes from that time: When we walked into the the fifth grade, the teacher said, "Ok, class, now the white people are going to teach." And the class yelled, "Yay, foreigners!" That particular class was a little rough though - 49 kids, 10-15 years old, hot day. The lesson had to be translated because that was only their second year of English instruction.

On our last day, a teacher brought us around to the form classes to say a formal goodbye, and the teacher tried to teach the students to say, "Go in peace." In two of the classes it came out, "Go in pieces!"

During the morning break, if the students are hungry and can afford it, a line of vendors selling snacks were right outside the school. The doughnuts and popcorn were pretty yummy. We didn't try the meat-filled pastries (meat = bad idea) or fried cassava.