Feed A Hungry Mind

The primary schools are now closed for their long, mid-year holiday, and will not resume until 4th July. However, in many schools there is daily tuition for the pupils in Standard VII who sit their national examinations in September. Those examinations will determine which pupils are offered places to continue their education into secondary school. Most Standard VII pupils are 14 years old, and so this is a critical stage in their young lives.

In April we held a most successful three-day training course for head-teachers and their deputies from 11 primary schools in Mabogini ward. The training was run by Mr Evans Lushakuzi who has worked with us since 2006. The participants were highly motivated and were very keen to glean as much as possible from Evans. They looked at principles of good management, styles of leadership, how to effect good delegation of work, and how to build an effective staff team. At the end of the third day each had written their own individual action plan. Our coordinator, Dilly Mtui, and the programme manager, George Kasenga, made a follow-up visit in May. They were most reassured to see that the teachers were implementing what they had discussed; in one school the head-teachers had sat with all her staff and written detailed job descriptions, and in another the head-teacher had designed a form for delegating duties to staff and the forms were in use with everyone aware of expected outcomes and deadlines.

In April the Director, Katy Allen, met the Hon. Minister for Education & Vocational Training, Dr Kawambwa in Dar es Salaam, and progressed discussions about the reintroduction of English course books for learning English as a foreign language in primary schools. Following the discussions Katy made a formal submission of the book project, and samples of the books are being printed in India.

George Kasenga has been busy preparing for the next visit by Jane Firth. Jane arrives in early July and will be with teachers of Standard I pupils in Mabogini to help develop their teaching of basic mathematics. George has also been liaising with Singa Chini Teacher Training College for a one-day workshop in mid-July in which Dr Anne Samson and Jane Firth will work with the College tutors to explore how participatory teaching or active-learning can be understood and adopted by the student trainee teachers at the College.

In the UK we have been involved in a Network Day. This was organised by Dr Anne Samson. Representatives from other charities working in education in Tanzania met in London. We discussed our work, difficulties we face and how we might work more effectively in collaboration on certain issues. The day was a success and two more meetings have been arranged for the autumn.

Jane Firth and Dr Anne Samson arrive back in Tanzania in July.

The generosity of our donors enables our work to continue, and we thank all of them for their support of, and interest in, what we are doing.

21st June 2011