Stories from the Ground: An Update from Melete Fellow Zakiyyah Ali

By Raising Malawi on 08.04.10

The Melete Foundation's International Teacher Development fellows have hit the ground running!

The three fellows, all American teachers, are getting a first-hand look at the serious challenges facing Malawi's educational system. While in Malawi, the teachers are using a journal to record their thoughts, observations and experiences.

Fellow Zakiyyah Ali is a community organizer and history teacher at the High School for Global Citizenship in Brooklyn, New York. Working with students and teachers in Malawi fits perfectly into Zakiyyah's global philosophy: we all have so much to learn from the world that surrounds us.

Check out Zakiyyah's journal entry from August 2:

For the past two days, July 29th and July 30th, I have visited with the teachers of the Millennium Village in Gumulira. This is a primary educational facility, schooling students from Standards 1 to 8 (in the American system this would Kindergarten to 8th grade)... the teachers travel exorbitant distances to reach the school by 7:30 AM, usually by local bike riders. There is no government transport system to provide for its teachers. The pay is very little and the teachers are extremely overworked. During the regular school year, the class size can be as large as 75 students or more! With this increase in the amount of students, there is still only one teacher, very few, if any resources, and yet the expectation remains the same — to educate. While there are teachers who are able to demonstrate minimally good methodological practices to engage a particular class, school-wide there is not the demonstration of best practices.

To read all of the journal entries from Melete fellows Ian, Jebediah and Zakiyyah, click here.

Find out how you can get involved and help raise Malawi here.