School and Class Environments

In all the four schools, the VBE commerce and economics classrooms were built with blocks and cement. There were security problems in the two rural senior secondary schools observed because they have school compounds that had no fencing or clearly defined boundaries. For example, in Bingo high school, there was a local road that passed through the school and consequently, vehicles and unauthorised people pass freely through the school premises, even when classes and examinations are going on. This was likely to distract both teachers’ and students’ attention during the teaching-learning process. Consequently, this school compound tended to be unfavourable for effective teaching and learning of VBE commerce and economics for both boys and girls. It was even more distracting for girls because many of the male pedestrians and rich vehicle owners tend to harass the girls sexually through catcalls, suggestive advances, gift to lure, verbal abuse and flashing, and thus forcing them into sexual relations (NCCE, 2003). This resulted in early marriages and teenage pregnancies as well as school drop-outs. One of the teachers in Bingo High schools told me ‘last year, we missed five of our brilliant girls in the final year due to this sort of pregnancy’. In the case of Pascal High School, there was unwanted noise from a local market which is located just by the school and VBE classrooms. The interference was so much that sometimes students could not hear what their teachers were saying in the teaching-learning process. For instance, the tape-recording that I did during the first observation was very poor because of such interference from outside the classroom.

Moreover, in the rural senior secondary schools, there was no electricity because National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) cables did not reach those rural areas. However, for electricity to be supplied to case study schools in the rural areas, their school management had to source for funds to purchase electric generating plants. They also have to install such electric plants and buy gas/petrol and engine oil for their operations. As the schools often complained of inadequate funds, the school principals said money for running such expenses was in short supply. Thus, rural schools’ lesson activities were often affected by shortage of teaching materials because even one hard copy [print out] of commerce and economics exercises could not be obtained from the computers in the offices of the principals. Consequently, teachers’ teaching materials in the rural high schools were mainly handwritten and were often left in the hands of male prefects who were often appointed to be in charge of commerce and economics. This was part of the gender regime in all the case study schools. According to the group of girls that I spoke with in those schools, such male prefects often gave the materials first to boys before giving them to some girls in the class. These tend to privilege the boys over the girls in the use of teachers’ learning materials. Although the two surveyed urban senior secondary schools were visibly connected to National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) supply, yet electricity from this source was not constant and that tended to affect the production of most teaching materials. What this means is that learning materials for students could only be produced when electricity was supplied and when there is no supply, such materials had to wait until electric power is available. This tended to result in shortage of such materials and girls seemed to be the ones mostly affected by such shortages as the male prefects usually supply boys first before the girls. Thus, the gender regime practised in the Commerce and Economics lessons was likely to privilege male students over girls with respect to teaching and learning materials.

Another aspect of gender regime observed in some High Schools has to do with poor standard of hygiene and sanitation in the rural High Schools as compared to those in the urban High Schools. This poor hygiene situation was supposed to reduce girls’ participation in their lessons. For instance, in Pascal high school, the two pit toilets lacked privacy and as such some matured girls were not able to use their toilet. Similarly, in Bingo high school, there was also no privacy. However, girls in these rural schools continued to participate more than boys in their Commerce and Economics lessons despite the poor standard of hygiene. The standard of hygiene in urban High Schools was better because in there, there were two

separate pit latrines; one for boys and the other for girls. For instance, in Mary Monk high school, girls’ latrine was located near to the girls’ hostels and boys’ latrine was near to boys’ hostel. Much more than that, they were kept neat and tidy at all times. The availability of these toilets indirectly tended to help the VBE girls to participate much more in their lessons than did boys. Additionally, there was portable drinking water in the urban schools whereas this was not available in the rural schools. The absence of water coupled with poor sanitation is important reasons for children, especially girls to drop out from those schools or even to refuse to go there for learning. It might be difficult for girls to remain in schools to learn where such harsh environments as those reported above are common. It has been argued that girls have special needs, especially during puberty, which if not provided for would result in girls’ poor attendance in schools (Association for the Development of Education in Africa, ADE, 2006). In order to minimise such problems, girls need facilities such as toilets/latrines with enough privacy; also water and proper desks/benches that would help them to learn and have a comfortable stay in school. It has been argued that students’ behaviours are a function of both person and environment (Pellegrini and Blatchford, 2000:91). This is because environment and people affect each other and behaviour and as such affect cognitive development.

The schools also had insufficient classroom spaces to accommodate all the students studying the subjects. The urban schools had basic facilities with toilet blocks and water supply but lacked sufficient seats and spaces for students. The two schools in the rural areas not only had insufficient classroom spaces, but the classrooms were old and dilapidated and all of them had no doors or window shutters. Moreover, the rooms were poorly furnished and students’ desks were arranged in rows and columns with small teachers’ tables at the front part of the classrooms placed between students’ desks and the chalkboards. The physical arrangements in the rooms limited the movement of students around the commerce and economics classrooms; thus discouraging them from interacting with other students.

Generally, not having enough classroom spaces means that the rooms were overcrowded. For example, in all of the four Economics classrooms, a normal class situation witnessed over sixty students seated in one classroom. In large classes such as those of Economics, there was a lot of disruptive and less on-task behaviour exhibited by boys as well as reduction in the amount of individual attention that boys and girls receive from their teachers. Therefore the VBE Commerce and Economics teachers face some teaching problems such as

problems of indiscipline, shortage of learning materials for all, and how to involve all the students during the lessons as only a group of girls, that is, the more proficient and confident ones who could respond quickly to the teachers’ questions dominated discussion while some boys showed no interest in whatever the teachers were teaching them. Thus, in the Economics classrooms of all the rural senior secondary schools, boys sat at the back, leaving the front and middle rows for girls. As a result of inadequate furniture in Economics classrooms, girls had to drag blocks or logs of wood from outside to the front areas of the classrooms to sit on for their lessons. This situation was particularly disadvantaging for the girls who supposed to enjoy equal opportunity in the use school facilities and equipment. In the case of urban senior secondary schools, parents were asked to provide desks and seats for their children. The girls whose parents were yet to buy them the desks and seats at the time of the study had to bring in stones or logs of wood from somewhere to the front of the classrooms to sit on. However, the boys whose parents were yet to buy those seats and desks decided to lean on the walls at the back of the classrooms. What this means is that such boys were not only reluctant to take part in discussions but were unenthusiastic to participate in class discussions during the lessons.

In terms of layout and physical nature, the Commerce classroom environment was similar to that of Economics. Nevertheless, it differs from the Economics classroom in terms of the number of students studying the subject. As noted in chapter 4, girls were the majority in the Commerce classrooms while boys were in the minority. Because the size of Commerce students was small compared to those studying Economics, they were able to concentrate more than those in the Economics classes. The next section describes teachers’ gender, subject and pay as another aspect of gender regime observed across the case study schools.