Kuuliza si ujinga

I gave my first monthly tests this week. Before I continue, let me explain the grading scale in Tanzania. A score between 80 and 100 is an A. 60 to 80 is a B, 40 to 60 is a C, and 20 to 40 is a D. You don’t fail a test unless your score is less than 20.

There’s a reason that grading scale is like this: the average test score is around 50. And after correcting many tests where students scored 6, 12, or 20 percent, I’m starting to look at 50 as a good score.

This is not to say that none of my students did well. I had a lot of scores in the nineties in my Form I chemistry class, and each class had at least a few students who scored in the 80s or 90s. But I tend to be optimistic and delude myself that my students understand everything I say . . . which clearly wouldn’t be true even in the U.S., where the students would at least speak English better. I need to keep reminding myself to put things in perspective and judge my students’ performance my Tanzanian standards. After all, a student who got 44% on the chemistry test told me it was the highest score she had ever received in chemistry!