On the first day of school this year I asked my students how many days of class we will have before it's time for final exams. The answer is many, but actually none of us the number for sure. True, the Ministry of Education publishes the secondary school calendar each year, and we teachers at Ngoana Jesu have our own written class schedules, but those are just, well, things to fall back on if nothing else comes up.
The following is a brief list of some of the things that 'come up', and take teachers out of class, students out of class, or shut down the school altogether.
1. Light rain. You can't hear anything when even light rain falls on the classrooms' tin roofs, which makes teaching tough. And further, teachers become very, very reluctant to make the walk from the staff room to the classroom during rainfall.
2. Heavy rain. A river called Sebolu fills up and prevents a quarter of the students from walking home when rain is pouring, so they must leave immediately if rain starts falling heavily.
3. Impromptu staff meetings. Principal walks into the staff room, says she wants to meet, and no teacher attends another class until the talking's over. Could be hours.
4. Family visits. When the parent of a student dies all of the teachers leave school mid-day and walk to the family's home.
5. Collecting wood. Two women cook lunch for the whole school each day. They burn wood as fuel to heat the giant pots. It is the job of the students to collect that wood from the countryside, so every week or two school is called off mid-day for wood collection.
A number of other events interfere with the teaching schedule. Honestly, the list is endless. If I had to guess, the average teacher probably attends not much over half of the scheduled classes in a school year.