Education Rwanda Project #2619

Feed A Hungry Mind

by Education East Africa

Project Report | May 7, 2010
Update May 2010

By Katy Allen | Director

Whole School Development Programme - update May 2010

Dr Anne Samson, the researcher and adviser for this programme, visited in February. Anne spent time with George Kasenga, our new programme manager, planning the next stages of work. Anne and George had a meeting with the headteachers of the four schools in which the main in-service training is taking place, together with the ward education officers responsible for those schools and the Teacher Resource Centre coordinators who assist George with the in-service training. The meeting was to discuss progress and plans, and for Anne to help with ideas for future work. Anne and George also met the district education officer and the chief inspector of schools for Moshi Rural. They arranged that the inspectors will visit, together with Mr Temba of Singa Chini Teacher-Training College, and evaluate the teaching and learning in the four schools. This will then assist in assessing our work in those schools.

In March Jane Firth visited again. Jane gave a three-day seminar to teachers of pupils in Standard II to guide them in teaching mathematics. The seminar covered the work the pupils should know from pre-primary and Standard I, and looked at most of the Standard II syllabus but particularly the important topic of hundreds, tens and units and 'place value', and basic multiplication. Jane visited many classrooms to observe and help the teachers who have attended her various seminars on basic mathematics for pre-primary, Standard I and II. Jane found many problems with classroom management and organisation, and particularly with the storage of equipment, and handing out of equipment and materials to pupils for essential number activities. Jane was able to help with these problems and encouraged the teachers to use the pupils far more to take responsibility for looking after much of the equipment and materials. Jane will visit again in July and October.

The Hon. Minister for Education in Tanzania is proceeding with the charity's proposal to re-introduce an old English course for the teaching of English as a foreign language in government primary schools as a way of addressing the current crisis in language teaching and learning. A new course has been written by this charity for Standard I and II pupils in-line with the original proposal, so that the old course starts in Standard III as it is designed to do. Maths booklets to be used as guides for primary school teachers to improve their knowledge of difficult topics in the primary mathematics syllabus are now with a publisher in Dar es Salaam. These booklets were written by a volunteer who worked with us over many years helping the teachers in the classroom, and we hope that they might be adopted nationally as training guides. They will be in Swahili.

In early March the annual school outing to Lake Manyara National Park was enjoyed by 35 pupils from Masia Marangu and Masia Mamba primary schools. All the pupils were from Standard IV, and they stayed the night in the park hostel. They saw many animals but were disappointed not to see any lions. They were intrigued by the hot spring which is naturally hot water coming from the ground and is part of their studies of the Rift valley.

We are looking forward to running a workshop for district education officers and chief inspectors of schools from each of the six districts in Kilimanjaro region. This workshop will be facilitated by two people from the Business School of the University of Dar es Salaam, and will take place over two days and cover managerial communication, team-building, conflict management and performance management.

We thank again all those you have donated towards our work and given us support. This is very generous and is greatly appreciated.

Attachments:

photos_May_10.pdf (PDF)

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Feb 8, 2010
October Update

By Katy Allen | Director

The last months have been busy.

Mama Sandi continues to give weekly training sessions for primary school teachers in order to help the teachers increase their knowledge and confidence. The Whole School Development Programme is extending to two more primary schools, Mengeni and Sembeti and Mama Mkure who is the co-ordinator of a nearby teachers' resource centre is to lead the work in these two school.

Jane Firth returned on 2nd October to give assistance to teachers of pre-primary schools and those of the first year of primary school. Again, her emphasis was on basic number work so that the children understand 'number correspondence', 'number bonds' and 'place value'. The teachers were introduced to many activities, including the use of number squares - or 100 squares - and dominoes, and the use of bottle top and kidney beans for counting, and bundles of cut-up drinking straws for the understanding of units and tens and their place value. They also worked on story-telling for the young children.

In August Dr Anne Samson, Dilly Mtui and Katy Allen attended the 6th Pan African Reading for All Conference held at the University of Dar es Salaam. They gave a colloquium on the work of the Whole Schoool Development Programme and the plans to introduce material for the teaching of English as a foreign language. The latter gave rise to significant interest and at the end of the presentation members of the audience flocked to the front desk to learn more about the availability of the material.

Katy Allen met both the Permanent Secretary and the Minister for Education at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Dar es Salaam to discuss the plans for those English materials. In September Katy wrote and submitted a Concept Paper and it is expected that the plans will progress for the material to be introduced in the primary schools in January 2011.

Plans are in place for another workshop to be held for District Education Officers and Chief Inspectors for each of the seven districts that comprise the Kilimanjaro Region. Negotiations are progressing with the Business School of the University of Dar es Salaam for them to facilitate training in communcation and management. If all goes well the workshop will be held for three days in early February 2010.

Please see the attached document for photographs of our latest work.

Thank you again to all our donors for the invaluable support to our work. This is helping us to achieve our goals of dealing with all strands of the primary education system. We are working at the grass roots to find out the real problems, their causes and to try to solve them, and then we are liaising at District level and now at Ministerial level to influence some changes. There is still much to be done - slowly but surely we are improving the quality of primary education. Thank you all again and we are very happy to hear your views or to deal with any questions.

Attachments:

Update_October_2009_photographs.doc (DOC)

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Feb 8, 2010
Whole School Development Programme

By Katy Allen | Director

2010 has started well, and the next few weeks are set to be busy. We are pleased to announce that George Kasenga has joined the Whole School Development Programme. George has many years of experience as a tutor at government teacher-training colleges, and has worked with a large NGO for the past five years on a similar programme providing in-service training and support to government primary schools. George is now the WSD programme's Tanzanian manager.

Mama Mkure is working with the teachers in Mengeni and Sembeti primary schools, and Mama Sandi is continuing with Masia Marangu and Masia Mamba primary schools. George is now working with them and getting to know all the teachers, headteachers and school committee members.

Dr Anne Samson returns in mid-February for another visit to assess and plan. Anne will meet George and they will be planning for the next stages of the programme. George is very keen to develop training for the headteachers, and our work with school committee members is scheduled to continue.

Jane Firth arrives again at the beginning of March. Before her arrival George is accompanying Mr Temba (of Singa Chini Teachers Training College) and a school inspector for several days to visit most of the pre-primary schools whose teachers attended Jane's training workshops. They want to see how the teachers are getting on, and to assess what support they need. Jane will also visit as many as she can when she is here. Jane will also visit the teachers of Standard I (first year of primary) whom she assisted in her workshops last October. Jane will run another workshop, with Mr Temba, this time for teachers of Standard II, again developing the teaching of basic mathematics.

Suzanne Al Kaddah has just completed a short assignment. Suzanne is a trainer of primary school teachers and specialises in English as a foreign language. Suzanne met teachers in the programme's four main primary schools. In each school she gave help with difficult topics encountered in the English syllabus. Suzanne hopes to return but finding suitable dates to fit her college schedule in Abu Dhabi and the Tanzanian primary school term dates is a problem. However, Suzanne is on-hand to assist with developing some explanatory materials to help the teachers.

Katy Allen chaired a committee of six members in Dar es Salaam in January. The committee was formed at the request of the Minister for Education, and through the Tanzanian Institute of Education. The committee sat for three days with a brief to discuss and assess materials for the teaching of English in government primary schools. A report was submitted at the end of the three days to the Minister, recommending a new language awareness course for pupils in Standards I and II, and the reintroduction of a very thorough, detailed course for use in Standards III to VII.

In mid-February we are very much looking forward to a visit from the CEO of GlobalGiving UK. Sharath Jeevan plans to visit on 17th February to see the projects and some of the work that VEPK is undertaking and to meet those involved.

Many thanks again to all of you who are donating towards our work. Your generosity is very much appreciated and it is enabling us slowly to improve the primary education for Tanzania's children.

Attachments:

Update_photographs_Feb_10.doc (DOC)

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