Still haven’t figured out UNAM

I’ve been here almost an entire term now, and I still know little about how things work here.

One thing I haven’t quite figured out is the academic system here, even though I’ve had it explained to me a number of times. This is how I understand it. In Namibian higher education, students need to have a 40% average on tests/projects during the term to be allowed to sit for the final exam. The final exam, called the “first opportunity exam”, is worth 40% of the grade. If they fail the first opportunity examination (less than 50%), but don’t fail too badly (more than 40%), then they have a “second opportunity exam”, in which they can try again. However, the second opportunity examination doesn’t take place until January of next year, seven months after the term ends. So for some, they don’t know if they have passed or failed a class until the week before the term after next term begins. It is very confusing for me. Exams here also have to be “externally moderated”. Thus, I had to send my “first opportunity examination” and my “second opportunity examination” to a professor in South Africa to get approval that my test was appropriate two months before the term was over. Then, after I have graded my exams, they are sent to this professor, who assesses whether I graded my exams appropriately. I’ve never had my final exams done so early in a term!

I gave a test today to my second year students. The tests in general cause high anxiety for the students. First, the majority of the students have not bought the textbook. The books are too expensive, and some students are still waiting for their bursaries (scholarships) for this term. I can’t imagine how difficult studying is when there is no exam. Second, we have such a small budget here, I can’t make handouts for the students except on my own dime at a copy shop. While I give notes to students electronically, I can’t give the extensive handouts I usually give. Third, the atmosphere surrounding tests is hectic. There simply are not enough chairs and desks for the students here. Before each class, students have to scrounge around the other classrooms looking for desks and chairs, and some students always have to resort to completing the test on their laps. Finally, I’m giving applied tests, where I gave them little situations and they have to apply the concepts to these situations. They aren’t used to these types of tests so much.

Another thing that I haven’t figured out yet is the room scheduling here. It seems as though rooms are not really scheduled, but are on a first come/first served basis. We spend a lot of our time looking for an empty classroom to hold class. My Monday class is the only class that is the same each week. We meet in one building for 45 minutes, then pick up our chairs and desks and walk to a different room in a completely different building and have the rest of the class for an hour. You have to have good biceps to be a student here. There are always at least a quarter of the students in class without a desk, and sometimes they are sharing a chair. A student always helps me pack up and carry my projector and laptop, which is very nice. The students are amazingly polite and respectful, and I’m getting used to being referred to primarily as “Prof”, and sometimes “ma’am”.

Despite the circumstances, which are probably really only a bother to me, the students are doing very well. They are bright and enterprising students, and have a demanding schedule of coursework and fieldwork. For most of the students, English is their third language, so they are at least trilingual, if not more. I often forget that they are undergraduates because of their maturity, and I find myself giving the students here, who are sophomores in college, much harder tests than the Masters students in the USA.