Sivi Time

The education system here in Tonga is comprised of primary schools, which contain classes 1-6, and high schools, or, as there are known here, colleges, for forms 1-7 (7th-12th grade for us Americans). In order to pass from primary schools into high schools, all class 6 students must sit an entrance exam (sivi) (four subjects: English, Tonga, science, and math) and obtain a passing score. If they don’t, they must repeat the year in primary school. In addition to passing, the exact score is also important because it qualifies the students for different high schools. Only those with the highest scores are accepted to the “best” high schools (the government-run ones). Those with lower passing scores are usually accepted to various church-run high schools (Free Wesleyan, Catholic, Mormon, etc.).

As most of you know, I am working in a primary school, which means my class 6 students, the class 6 teacher, and I have essentially been preparing all year for this test, which they took on October 6-7. I have a few concerns about having a placement test for high school entrance, particularly that it places an enormous amount of pressure on 10-12 year old kids. All year they have been coming to school early, usually 7:30, leaving late, around 4:30, and coming back again for night school from about 7:00-9:00. In addition, I generally dislike standardized tests and the “teaching-to-the-test” mentality that accompanies them, which is a large part of what happens in class 6, and, on top of that, these tests have a history of being terrible and full of errors. The English portion has been particularly bad in the past; a few years ago a PCV took the test for one of his students, a college graduate and native English speaker, and scored an 80% because the test had so many mistakes!

Still, despite these concerns, all in all, I think the sivi went pretty well. The English portion of the exam was much more grammatically sound than in past years (I think there were only 3 mistakes on the whole paper), there weren’t too many ridiculous trick vocabulary words, and there was only one section that was pretty impossible (combining multiple sentences by choosing the correct conjunction…boo).

And, since we’re in Tonga, a major event means one thing: feasts! Over the two days of the exam there were four kai pola at my school compound: two breakfast feasts, and two dinner feasts. Huge tents were set up in the school yard and tables and benches were brought over from the church halls. The breakfast feasts were fairly typical: giant plates of bread, cookies, and cakes for each student/teacher/guest, all to be washed down with a large mug of milo (knock-off hot cocoa) or sugar and milk with a bit of tea. (The day before the exam, I had a serious talk with the students about not eating too much before the test began to avoid being sick…overeating can be a serious problem at a kai pola!)

However, the dinner feasts blew my mind. All Tongan feasts are pretty astounding to us portion-conscious foreigners and tables are typically completely covered with food, often at least two layers deep. But, for such a special occasion, the typical would not do. As the exam was wrapping up, giant flat-bed trucks pulled up to the school, each covered with food and giant shelf-like structures covered in tin foil and other shinny paper and decked out with balloons and ribbons. These shelves were first placed on the tables, and then loaded with food, creating the surface area of three tables where there was once just one!

I should note that for the entire two days and nights that the exam was taking place, the fathers and male members of the community were showing their support by drinking kava. Nonstop. All year long I’ve been avoiding being a to’ua (lone unmarried woman who sits in the kava circle and serves the men kava) and somewhere along the line in a string of excuses I made the vague promise that I would only to’ua during the sivi. Now, to put this in a cultural context, Tongans say they are going to do things all the time that they have no intention of doing- it’s more important that you tell a person what they want to hear rather than refuse anything. But, apparently, this does not apply to Alicia. The first day I held the kava drinkers at bay telling them that I had to go into town and work on the water project application, which I did. The second day, I had no such handy excuse, and every time I appeared in the school yard someone ran up and asked me to come to’ua. For the morning I made indistinct references to having to clean the classroom and talk to the kids, but once they were in the room with the exam, I was out of excuses. Essentially, I spent the rest of the day hiding, moving around, and performing very menial tasks (like washing a table) with great energy and concentration to avoid having to join the kava circle.

Now that the exam is over, the class 6 will essentially sit around for the last month and a half of school. I’ve told them we’re still going to have class, much to their dismay, but have promised only “fun” lessons and no written work. We’re working on how to read/act plays now and I’m hoping to put together a show to perform for the community when school finishes in December.