Abracadabra

I am in a new town this week: Kaduna. There are 4 other VSOs living here, one of whom is also on the Class Teacher training workshop.

I learnt 2 amazing facts today. One, wonderful fact which will make you raise your eyebrows and smile, the other will make you very sad and subdued.

2. Only 17 out of 21,000 teachers assessed scored 80% on a teacher baseline assessment which is about the equavelent to Year 4 level of maths, reading and punctuaion skills! This was for a state in the south of Nigeria. Our results in the North are yet to be published and are apparantly even more shocking!

1. I randomly learnt (not part of the workshop) that abra ka dabra probably originated from Arabic. Apparently 'ka' means 'like' so the phrase translates something like - let this be like that - which makes complete sense when you wave your wand to cast a spell! I love it!