Posting Grades in Public, No Secrets Here

So it’s the end of the school year. Back home in America kids’ might be nervously monitoring the mailbox to intercept their grades to inspect the good/bad news before their parents get home. Here in Mozambique there is no mail and there is no mediating the day of reckoning. Our school director simply calls all the parents down to the school and has each term director post their students’ grades on a giant poster-sized report card for everyone to see who is passing on to the next grade, and who will be repeating the same level again next year. The palpable excitement translates to cheers of joy and smiles for those on the positive end of the year’s account of tests and grading, and disappointment for those on the negative side. Most kids have a good idea of were they should be by this stage, but there is always room for surprises, like the case of our kid Romão. By all objective measures he’s had a terrible academic year. We have quizzed him several times on various class subjects and his responses never fail to disappoint. “Romão, what does the digestive system do?” Response: “Is that the lungs?” “Romão, this one is easy, what is 5 divided by five?” Response: “Oh yeah, I got it, it’s zero.” “No.” “Oh yeah, its two.” Sometimes it just seemed hopeless and too painful to try to help. He brought home negatives from end of the year exams in every subject except for a couple of passing 10s in Physical Education and English. A basket full of mangos for the teacher got his Portuguese grade into positive territory, and hauling several loads of bricks to the math teacher’s new house helped that discipline. Various rounds of begging and chores got most things straightened out, but still, he had a 2 in Physics, so far from the minimum of 10 needed to pass. Well, something happened, because when we checked his name on the report card he was passing physics. Maybe the physics teacher did it because he knows Romão works for us, or maybe his Class Director, our theater group counterpart Artur advocated for him, or maybe nobody wanted him to repeat 8th grade for a third time. Whatever the reason, Romão is moving on to 9th grade, but can still barely read or do any math beyond simple addition or subtraction, so it’s unclear weather we should be happy for him or sad for the whole system, or both. Romão will definitely be pleased with the news; he’s out in the fields for the week planting corn. Looking at the long lists of names on the grade sheets made us realize how connected we have become with our student community, as most bring to mind faces and warm memories from class or clubs during our two years here.