One difference between what I remember of USA schools and the schools here in Tanzania that I have not gone into over the years is the students being expected to speak in front of large gatherings. Every morning students are selected to give a morning speech where they have to give a short speech typically on a topic of their choice but sometimes the teachers give it to them. They do this in front of the whole school of over 300 students and their teachers. I remember possibly doing that in front of a small group or class and that students that were trying to get elected would do. I volunteered to be the public speaker for our youth group at church when I was in middle school and for the Future Farmers of America in high school. But I don’t remember having to give speeches or presentations to large groups in Elementary school.

Here in Tanzania that is fairly common for kids in Standard grades (Elementary and Middle School) do this often. Yes we regularly see the same students volunteering, but they select students for these events a lot as well.

This was recently the case as they had students from each class give a presentation on a subject the teachers choose for them. It included a wide range of topics from animals to science and biology.

The above video is from Standard 1 (equal to 1st grade) doing a presentation on animals where they end by doing the animal sound which of course makes everyone laugh.

This extends beyond the normal morning speeches and debates. They also have the students do morning devotions and lead singing during the worship services.

Some use visual aides ad the Standard 4 class did when they talked about topographical features like mountains, valleys, plains etc.

The older kids also get to do a question and answer segment portion of the presentation. The most interesting thing about that are the “arguments” between the student asking a question and the teachers trying to get them to change the question to their way of thinking. Independent thoughts are not big here, it is typically only make points that agree to a teacher’s way of thinking.

A case in point happened when the Standard 7 students were asking questions of the Standard 5 students. They kept bringing up information about the elections and the fact there is a lot controversy about the elections really allowing different views since the same party has one the Presidency and a majority of the National Assembly. Of note it was a one party system until the constitution was amended in 1992. The same party from the one party system still controls most of the government and is unlikely to lose power since the President’s office controls the election process.

another big habit is leaning against a wall.