Feed A Hungry Mind

Whole School Development Programme  - March report 2012

The new school year started on Monday 9^th January, and at the end of this month the primary schools close for the Easter break.

On 23^rd January Katy Allen, the Director, and Dilly Mtui, the project’s coordinator, had a meeting with the Deputy Minister for Education in Dar es Salaam about the progress of the course books to be introduced for teaching English in the primary schools. This was disappointing as the Deputy Minister had not been properly briefed. Next week Katy and Dilly are meeting Dr Mwinyimvua in the State House for what is hoped to be a more productive meeting.

At the very beginning of February more head-teacher training sessions were run. Previously the head teachers had had a very good three-day training workshop with Evans Lushakuzi looking at management, delegation of duties, team-building etc. This time Inspectors from the Zonal Office (that is the Northern Zone of Tanzania), District Office and the Teacher Service Commission ran a three-day workshop which guided the head teachers and their deputies on the meaning and implementation of government directives, budgeting requirements, teacher rights and disciplinary procedures, academic responsibilities etc. The workshop was held for three days with head teachers in Mabogini ward, and then in the following week for head teachers in Marangu East ward.

In February a new volunteer, David Jones, arrived. David had volunteered on the project when he was 19 years old, and has now returned on a career-break. David is now assisting George Kasenga, the programme’s manager, and will be working in Mabogini ward supporting the teachers with their teaching of maths in the early years.

Jane Firth returned at the end of February for another series of seminars in Mabogini ward. On this visit Jane has been running refresher courses. She started with head teachers who have been newly appointed, and four visiting teachers from Karatu who had heard about her work and had requested to be able to attend. Jane spent two days giving an overview of the teaching of basic mathematics to pre-primary pupils, Standard I pupils and Standard II pupils. The head teachers need to know the methodologies and stages so that they can assist and supervise their teachers. Jane spent another two days with pre-primary and Standard I teachers together, reminding them of the important stages of learning for their pupils, and how they can assess their pupils through the classroom activities. Next week Jane will spend two days with Standard I teachers and Standard II teachers together, again showing the progression of the pupils’ learning, and techniques to help understanding and to help teachers assess the pupils’ ability. After that Jane will have a day with a session in the morning with one set of teachers, and the same session with other teachers in the afternoon. This will be to help with resource management, as the teachers now have many hand-made cards/dominies/games etc for classroom activities. The storage and use of these, with over 50 children in many of the classes, is another skill the teachers need to master. One of the teachers, Mary Mtei at Mserekia primary school, will give a demonstration lesson for all the other teachers to observe and see how she uses her pupils to manage those resources and how she has developed her pupils to work in groups.

 Dr Anne Samson returned to Kilimanjaro at the beginning of March. She attended the first days of Jane’s seminars. Anne and Katy then had a very encouraging meeting with the Zonal Chief Inspector and his head of Primary Inspector and head of Teacher Education Inspector. The meeting was arranged so that the methods of assessment of pupils’ work could be agreed upon. From previous discussions it has transpired that tutors at the Teacher Training College were promoting assessment of pupils’ work by observation of group activities, and participation in discussions etc. The District Inspectors on the other hand still insisted on pupils’ work being assessed by written work in exercise books. The Zonal Chief Inspector explained that sometimes central government circulars on matters such as this are sent directly to the Teacher Training Colleges and by-pass his office and so his inspectors might not always be aware of things. He requested that a meeting be arranged in July, when Anne Samson is next in Tanzania, so that the he can attend and all parties can agree on methods of assessment of pupils that are suitable for the ‘participatory’ methods of teaching and the new ‘competence-based’ outcomes that are now expected.

Anne, Katy and Dilly travelled to Morogoro to the Teacher Training College (TTC) there as that is the central college that trains TTC tutors. They met a couple who are working there under VSO and who have knowledge of new trainer-education material which is being introduced.

The Ministry of Education has just announced revised term dates for the rest of this year because of the national census taking place in August. Primary school teachers will be used to conduct the census and so the schools will be closed. The usual long mid-term holiday in June is now much reduced and a new school break has been imposed for the whole of August. This affects the work of some of our volunteers who have already booked flights – but part of our work here always involves overcoming hurdles such as these…….

Again we thank all of you who have donated and who share our view that a long-term commitment in schools, working with teachers and education officials is the only way to bring about any change in the government primary education sector.

Many, many thanks and good wishes,

Katy Allen

Director

9th March 2012

9^th March 2012

Whole School Development Programme  - December report 2011

The government primary schools closed on Friday 3^rd December, and the school year is over. The new school year will start again in mid-January.

In the last three months much has happened, but the most exciting news is that in mid-November Katy Allen, the Director, and Dilly Mtui, the co-ordinator, had a meeting with Dr Jakaya Kikwete, the Hon. President of the United Republic of Tanzania. The meeting was at the State House in Dar es Salaam, and Katy and Dilly were with this His Excellency for about an hour. The meeting, attended by some of the President’s advisers and aides, was to present to the President the sample books which form the course for primary school pupils to learn English as a foreign language. Aside from the excellent material in the books, and the many and varied ways of giving the pupils a solid foundation in the skills of speaking, reading and writing, and particularly of reading comprehension, the new development is that the teachers’ books give all the instructions and explanations in Swahili, with a mini dictionary and pronunciation guide. There are few teachers in the government primary schools who are teaching English with any confidence, and these course books will help to build their confidence and guide them through every lesson. The President was visibly enthusiastic and said that he wanted this project to go ahead. We are now liaising with one of his aides. A short mention was given on Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation radio that the meeting had taken place, and also the Daily News carried a paragraph about the meeting. (There is a photograph of the meeting posted with this report)

In October Jane Firth returned and, again working in Mabogini ward, she ran a four-day seminar for teachers of Standard II pupils (8 year olds) to help them with the teaching of mathematics. At this level the pupils are expected to become competent with addition and subtraction and multiplication tables and to be introduced to fractions. Jane emphasises repeatedly the necessity to use real (‘concrete’) items first with gentle progression to the ‘abstract’ of writing down a sum for the pupils to write down the answer. On the day preceding this seminar Jane was with the head-teachers so that they could get an overview of what their teachers would be taught in the following four days, in order for them to support their teachers. Jane Bentley, starting her three-month assignment, accompanied Jane Firth on her classroom visits to see how the teachers were coping. It seems that greater classroom management skills are needed, in order to facilitate maths games with the resources which need storing, distributing to the pupils and collecting back in again. The work now is to help the teachers, some of whom have over 60 pupils, to have confidence in using equipment, and to give their own pupils responsibility over much of the equipment. Mama Sandi, who has worked with Jane Firth on all of her seminars, has continued to visit teachers in their classrooms to give them support, and Jane Bentley has accompanied her.

Dr Anne Samson was in Kilimanjaro for a week in October, and hosted the second meeting for the Inspectors of schools for Moshi Rural District and the tutors of Singa Chini Teacher Training College to discuss ‘assessment’ of pupils’ work. The first meeting had highlighted great differences which were impeding the development of teaching methods. After much discussion it was found that different information flows from the central authorities to the inspectors from that which is given to the Teacher Training Colleges. This may be merely a matter of timing, in that one body gets more recent regulations and procedures than the other. However, both groups asked that Anne Samson and Village Education Project try to sort out this discrepancy with the central Ministry of Education and education and inspectorate departments. This will be tackled in the new year.

All of the seminars, visits and meetings were organised by the Programme’s manager, George Kasenga, who has also kept essential reports and records.

In the UK two more meetings of the Network of UK charities which work in education in Tanzania, were held. The last meeting in November attracted new faces, and the forum proved its worth in enabling information and contacts to be exchanged.

As 2011 comes to an end we are pleased to share these snippets of our work. We are achieving our aim of working to gain the trust and confidence of those within the primary schools, and then with knowledge of the difficulties they face we are promoting greater liaison between others in the government primary education sector. It is only with detailed knowledge of the ‘grass-roots’ that we can work with all involved to see what feasible solutions there are. Our approach seems to be working and we are optimistic that we can do even more to help in 2012.

None of this would be possible without our donors – whose generous gifts fund all our work. A huge ‘thank you’ to all of you who have so kindly given towards our work. On behalf of everyone who is benefiting from our work in Tanzania we hope that all our donors have a very happy Christmas and enjoy the festive period to the full.

Very best wishes

Katy Allen

Director

8^th December 2011