Grad screens Kenya documentary
Posted on February 7, 2008
The violence that erupted in Kenya after the Dec. 27 presidential election left recent JMU graduate Alex Sirney completely heartbroken.
“None of the people I know have been hurt,” he said before knocking on his wooden desk. “But people are scared. People are nervous.”
After completing a short-term study abroad anthropology program in Kenya in summer 2005, Sirney was eager to return. In 2006 he received a grant from the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program to film the temporary integration of American and Kenyan teachers in native classrooms. His documentary, “Teaching Kenya,” debuted for free on Jan. 27 at Court Square Theatre.
“Teaching Kenya” reveals Kenya’s educational system through the eyes of its teachers and students. It focuses on the problems within the system most notably low funding, overcrowding, teacher shortages and poor teacher training.
“The [Kenyan] government declared all the schools free which is great in some ways and not so great in other ways,” Sirney said.
Free education sparked a surge in enrollment into primary schools but no jobs were created to combat the increasing number of students since 1998, according to the documentary. In the school filmed, the teacher to student ratio was nine to 402. Of the nine teachers, only five are paid.
With a lack of funding, the schools now bear the financial burden. In order to pay for supplies and teachers among other expenses, the schools introduced user fees, which are ultimately a lower form of tuition fees, according to Sirney. Many students cannot afford the user fee and thus cannot afford their theoretically free education.
In the villages that Sirney filmed, Kakamega and Kajiado, teachers complete a two-year training program and most are there because they cannot find other work, according to the documentary.
“All the problems they discuss are no different from the problems we have, they’re just more extreme,” Sirney said. “Under-funded schools, overpopulated classrooms, teachers not trained the best; these are all problems that we have in the US.”
Sophomore Lindsey Roby saw the documentary at Court Square Theater and said it gave a clear picture of the good and the bad elements of Kenya’s educational system.
“It makes you really thankful for your own education,” she said.
Since Sirney’s last departure from Kenya in July, violence has stricken the country.
A disputed Dec. 27 presidential election between the incumbent President Mwai Kibaki of the Kikuyu tribe and opponent Raila Odinga of the Luos tribe marked the start of recent violence.
As a result of the dispute, gangs and well-organized militia have ravaged most of western Kenya killing more than 800 and displacing more than 300,000 people from their homes, according to The Boston Globe. Despite a peace plan signed on Feb. 2 by Kibaki and Odinga, fighting has continued.
Sirney has seen several pictures from massacres, including one of a baby sitting on a chair while its mother lies on the floor in a pool of her own blood.
“They’re horrifying and they look even more horrifying because I’ve been in houses like that,” he said. “I’ve been to the town that that happened in. It was in one of my favorite towns.”
Associate Executive Director of the Office of International Programs Jennifer Coffman led the teacher seminar in Kenya. She hopes the documentary will motivate change.
“The film also clearly indicates that there is still much to do and we have to work with one another to help one another.
Coffman said. “That is true now more than ever in Kenya, as it will be years, really, before some of the areas that we visited can fully recover from the crises of the past month. Kenya’s public schools, including all of those we visited, will continue to need outside assistance.”
Sirney hopes his documentary will help people to not only think more globally, but also help to improve the situation in their own towns and countries.
“There’s a lot to be gained from having a variety of perspectives in your mind,” he said. “If you’re willing to help, fantastic, but make sure you look to your own people, your own culture as well.”
He said he hopes to inspire those who become the businessmen, politicians, lawyers, mothers and fathers of the next generation by exposing them to documentaries like “Teaching Kenya.”
“Eventually the good kind of globalization can happen where we’re all actually helping each other instead of trying to exploit each other,” he said.
Sirney graduated in ’07 as a SMAD and anthropology major. He plans to move to New York City in May to pursue a career in documentaries.
