last week our primary school students received their midterm report cards. And in a country like Mauritius that has an education system that is incredibly competitive, and test driven, I often think of how poorly prepared the students are to perform up to expectations. 

I have never dreamed of being an english teacher, and my research kinda just fell into place because of Harry’s teaching english as a foreign language certification, and my Mauritian language barrier. But, one of our students came early to class last week, to show us her report card. She is in her last year of primary school, and is preparing to take her CPE (primary school exit exam), and an immense amount of pressure is put on them to pass… aka if you don’t do well on your CPE you are placed in a vocational or remedial secondary education track, and there is no way to ever get back on the mainstream university prep track. anyway, she brought in her report card and showed us that she had gotten a C in english. I wasn’t immediately sure how to react, was this bad, was this good? Was she upset with us that she hadn’t done better? And then through my broken understanding of french, and Harry’s translation I gathered her feelings. She was expecting a D in english, and because of our class her grade had risen to a C in just the very last few weeks. She said it was because for the first time she thought learning english could be fun and interesting, that having fun and playing games with us had helped her in her class at school. 

i nearly cried.

drama does help. case and point.