Feed A Hungry Mind

I hope this finds you well and in good spirits.

Both Tanzania and Rwanda conducted a national census in August. As primary school teachers are the main source of people to gather the information that meant that each country changed its usual holiday times.

In Rwanda the new school year stated on 26^th September 2022.

We are particularly keen on working with Claude and his pupils at Gasabo primary school because Claude has taught his pupils English using the NOEC books since their first day in Primary 1. They have now just started Primary 6 which is the final year of primary education. They have made excellent progress and are now reading long stories in the NOEC books. The stories are read and studied over many lessons, carrying out the aim of the author to develop fluent reading and comprehension skills, which form the basis of most of the future education of the pupils. 

The pupils are reading one of the best stories in the whole of the NOEC which is that of the tortoise and the monkey. The tortoise borrows money from the monkey and does not pay it back. The tortoise uses his son to convey strings of excuses to the monkey at which the monkey gets more and more cross. In the final part, the tortoise tells his son to roll him on his back so that he can pretend to be a grindstone. The monkey arrives to find the small tortoise grinding corn. The monkey is so furious when the small tortoise tells him his father has gone away, that he picks up the grindstone and throws it into the trees. A few moments later the father tortoise comes running to his house, telling the monkey that he remembered he had to pay and has come back. He tells the monkey that he keeps his money in his grindstone. That is why the monkeys are in the trees today; they are still looking for the grindstone!

However, the Rwandan Government Equip programme, about which I wrote at some length in my last report, is now in Gasabo school. Claude himself says, “It is the worst programme I have even seen”. For the time being he is only using the Equip materials when the Equip staff come to visit the school. Other teachers are doing the same. All the teachers in the school have adopted the NOEC methodology, as Claude says, “because it is the most successful, especially for small pupils where they learn by doing, and also the NOEC books are very structured”.

The Equip programme is now in all the schools in which we work bar two. Muhazi and Kibara primary schools are the two not affected by the Equip programme. The Building Learning Foundations programmes, supported by the British Council with UK government money, which has been concentrating on maths and school management has ceased its support in schools where the Equip programme is present. Other established programmes are also pulling out. This is a worrying development. We are working with headteachers and the Equip visiting staff to ensure that our work with NOEC can continue even it is has to be alongside the Equip programme. This is very important for Claude’s Primary 6 pupils so that we can evaluate the use of the NOEC over the entire primary schooling of a cadre of pupils. The teachers at Gasabo confirm that Claude’s pupils are doing so much better than those who were in Primary 6 last year. From Primary 4 they have had all their lessons through the medium of English and they are performing in all their subjects better on average than those pupils who have gone before them.

In Tanzania the two new classrooms for the Bright pre-primary and primary school are nearly finished with doors and windows yet to be put in. The classrooms will be completed for the new school year in January 2023. 

The school now has its three water tanks, which total 7,500 litres, full of water from the drilled, underground supply. That has enabled the first vegetable patch to be planted and the pupils are required to make sure it gets enough water. More vegetable patches are planned so that the school can have a thriving garden.

Thank you for reading and for your continued interest in our work. Thank you too for your generous donations towards our work which keep our programmes going. With your help we strive to give pupils a good foundation in English and to develop their thinking skills so that they can make the most of their future education.

Thank you all very, very much indeed. 

With all good wishes, 

Katy

• The money and the tortoise drawings (PDF)