Yesterday, I learned the phrase that means “vacuum cleaner” in Arabic. My teacher thought a second and then asked me what the English phrase meant. I explained that it was a cleaner that used a vacuum to suck up the dirt. I then had to explain what a vacuum was. I said that is was a space with absolutely nothing in it. “So it is air?” he asked. No, no air, no nothing. He really didn’t get it. I then said that it was like outer space, that he understood. But he still didn’t understand how that worked in a vacuum cleaner. I asked him what would happen to the air in the space shuttle if you opened a window in space. He didn’t know… Seriously, he had no idea, he had never heard of a siphon (and I didn’t use that word, I explained what it did) and he had no idea how water came up through the taps. Pumps were a total mystery to him, I guess he thinks they are magic. This is a graduate of a Yemeni college. I knew this stuff by 4th grade, 5th max. He also didn’t understand how people could eat a poisonous snake and not die. He was amazed to find out that the poison is in a discrete sac.
I’ll say this, his knowledge of both Arabic and English grammar is very good. If I had to guess, his knowledge about science would be about on a 3d grade level, and I wonder if his math skills are above a 7th grade level. Like I said, this is a college graduate, talking to people on the street can be really painful sometimes. The level of ignorance here is appalling and it is easily the thing I dislike the most about this place.
There are a lot of obstacles in the way of a Yemeni that wants an education of course. Poverty is the number one problem. Teachers with what we would consider a mid high school education are another. In some areas of the country, there are so few schools, and so many students that there can be upwards of 200 kids in a class! The problem is only going to get worse. Yemen has one of the largest population growth rates in the world, over half the population is under the age of 16. With that many people getting that little education, this place will be in a world of trouble in 10 years and I don’t see any way around it…
One reply on “Yemeni education”
Given the water situation there, it reminds me of the Fremen in Frank Herbert’s “Dune”. When so much effort is spent on getting water into one’s body, the understanding of some concepts about it (like drowning in “Dune” or siphoning it from place to place in your example) must just not be there.