School

---

It is a good thing that we decided to finalize our selection of schools only upon arriving in Addis. The school that we had selected from our internet research and email questions, turned out to not give a good first impression. The staff was not very welcoming, and our kids did not want to go there. Other schools were either closed or very expensive. Well, we knew that our African adventure would have challenges and test our resourcefulness. We selected the British International School upon recommendation of a local expatriate. It is close to Ruta’s work and has enough non-Ethiopian students that our kids don’t feel like such odd ducks. We understand that 60-70% of students are Ethiopian, with about 5% white. The non-Ethiopian kids come from Pakistan, Sudan, India, Korea, Sweden, and so forth. The school costs about $2000 US per child so I was wondering how Ethiopians can manage the cost. Even for us, the tuition was probative on my $200/month salary. Fortunately, the school gave us deep discounts in exchange for Tadas working there a little bit and for some additional efforts on our half. Hopefully it will be a win-win solution for all. After the first 2 weeks of schooling, Kovas in particular does not feel challenged. For example, his English class is covering what adjectives are and his math is covering least common multiples. Apparently, St Mary’s have prepared our kids well, for they are one of the smartest in their classes.

The kids will write more on the blog about their school. I’ll fill you in that it is a British curriculum. The kids follow a block schedule with all the usual subjects. It’s amusing to me that they earn merits for good conduct, just like the points earned by the school houses in Harry Potter series. However, as in all Ethiopia, the resources are scarce - there are no handouts. The exception is that we received a 4-6 half page student handbook containing the school rules. The students write down content that is written on the board into their 50 page notebooks. I understand that they will be getting textbooks, but the school year is just ramping up and I don’t think the textbooks have been used yet.

The classrooms are painfully bare - the first grade room has the alphabet hung up on the wall and a small world map. That’s it! The restrooms are also bare - no toilet paper, soap or towels. Our kids bring their own.

---