Feed A Hungry Mind

A warm welcome to 2025.

The long Christmas holiday for the schools is over, and in Rwanda schools reopened on 6^th January. In Tanzania the schools were closed for over a month and the new school year began on 13^th January. 

The new school year in Tanzania always seems to be a hard time for parents to find the school fees after the expenditure of Christmas. Their expenditure is not at all equivalent to the many excesses in our European or American lives, but it is customary to buy a new outfit for every child in the family and to have meat to eat on Christmas day.

The Christmas holiday coincides with the best weather in Kilimanjaro and many members of families who work and live away from their home villages come home to celebrate. It is the season of weddings and church confirmations. Weddings require financial contributions from all family and friends, and if your child is being confirmed then there is another new outfit to be acquired (white dress, gloves, shoes and hat for the girls, and black trousers, black shoes, white shirt and a black tie for the boys) as well as pocket money for the children’s traditional ‘walking around’ for the few days following the ceremony.

The first term of the school year often does not have a full cohort of pupils for some time whilst the fees for the term are found.

In Bright Pre and Primary School spirits are high. The national examinations for all Standard VII pupils who have completed their primary education were held in November 2024 and the results were good. Those pupils joined Bright when it opened, but they were too old to enter Standard I. Therefore, they had their educational foundation at other schools and the teachers at Bright had to work to help them learn and improve. There were only 27 pupils in their class and they all sat the Standard VII national examination. 22 of them gained Division A and 5 gained Division B.  The subjects examined are Swahili, English, maths, science, civics, and a general paper on ‘community knowledge and work skills’. The first three subjects carry the most marks. There are also national examinations for Standard IV and all 70 of those pupils sat the examinations, and 26 gained division A, 35 division B and 9 Division C.

The enrolment for Standard I this year reached capacity at 71 pupils, and the school had to turn away a further 70 pupils who wanted to join. The school now has a total of 475 pupils from its Standard I up to Standard VII. There are also two classes of pre-primary.

The school has received 16 desktop computers from German donors and is looking forward  to starting computer classes as one of the few primary schools in the area to have modern desktop computers. The computers were to be set-up in the library, but quite rightly there is a new initiative to give each class timetabled ‘reading time’ to use the library in order to instill a habit of reading. That means that a new classroom is needed. The computers will be in one of the existing classrooms on the first floor once wiring has been completed for their use. Being on the first floor will provide extra security. Plans are underway to build a new classroom in the grounds. The classroom will use an existing outside wall, and that will save on building costs as only three walls will need to be constructed from scratch.

In Rwanda we continue our work in Muhazi, Cyili, Murambi, and Rudakabukirwa primary schools. We decided this year not to continue visiting Kibara primary school. The teachers there are happy to continue using the NOEC books, but the long road to the school is in an appalling condition and the wear and tear on our car was costing too much. With the time saved in visiting Kibara we are looking at the possibility of starting in a new school at Kabuga.

Claudine teaches Primary 2 in Muhazi Primary School and previously worked on our programme in Gikomero Primary School and so has been using our NOEC (New Original English Course) books since 2016. This term her pupils are practising the use of the present continuous tense by doing and saying, for example, “I am opening the box”, “I am putting the bottle on the chair”. This is able to be done well after Claudine’s demonstration of the language and the pupils seeing the meaning that the action is done at the same time as speaking. In other words, the action must be continuing. It is so important to get to the core meaning of each tense so that their differences are understood. Textbooks and the curriculum go astray by introducing the present simple tense too soon, and then showing pictures to demonstrate the tense that show an action in motion. For instance, ‘cows eat grass’ accompanied by a textbook picture of a cow eating grass. This then confuses the real meaning, that the present simple tense depicts facts or things perceived as fact by the speaker, and so is quite distinct from the present continuous tense which is used for actions or plans continuing at the time of speaking. This is what makes the NOEC books so very good and clear as the emphasis is on the pupils getting to see and understand the real meaning of the sentence structures and patterns.

Cyili primary school is headed by Enoch. When we started work in Rwanda in 2015, Enoch was a teacher of English at Gasabo primary school. We noted that his spoken English was good, and we tried to persuade him to teach English in lower primary and use our NOEC books. He always found excuses, and we thought that perhaps he was shying away from the initial effort that using the NOEC books requires. Teachers have to familiarise themselves with the Teacher’s Book and learn how to use the mini-dictionary and pronunciation chart provided in that book, as well as following the instructions to effect the teaching methods. It does not take long for teachers to get used to this, and then they find that teaching is so much easier as the Teacher’s Book does all the work for them! Enoch recently, when talking to Damian, confessed to this and said that although he could see the children were learning and that the teachers learned as well he did not want any demands put on him. He laughed!

Enoch has now found his calling as a Head Teacher of the newly built primary school Cyili. As soon as he was appointed he contacted us and asked that we bring our programme of the NOEC to his school. His teachers have been using the NOEC for over two years now, starting in Primary 1 and now in both Primary 1 and Primary 2.  Enoch said of the programme, “NOEC is helping us very much. Primary 1 is already speaking English very well. At the end of last term we invited parents to come and witness our work. We used NOEC Book One pictures, and we made big posters with the pictures on and children pointed to them and ready loudly what was happening in the pictures. The parents could see that the story matched the pictures, and they were very excited to see their little children speak and read English. They applauded! We are going to do a similar event this term.

“Every teacher in this area recognizes a young child who uses NOEC when you hear them speaking, even outside school. They speak very well and they know how to ask questions, or answer them. 

Damian asked Enoch what he would say to the new Minister for Education if he met him, and he replied, “Well, I would tell him how at the end of Primary 1, 2 and 3 children using NOEC speak English without stumbling – fluently.”

Enoch made a point of thanking us for the fact that very pupil has a NOEC book, as the government books are never supplied in enough numbers to go round the class and sometimes whole desks do not have a book.

We were to have a meeting with the outgoing Minister for Education, Gaspard Twagirayezu, on Friday 6^thDecember.  Our aim was to gain insights from him to help with our advocacy as he is now more relaxed not being a cabinet Minister. We knew Gaspard before he was made the Minister and we know he has always liked our work. Unfortunately, he had to cancel for work commitments and we are trying to rearrange. Alongside this, we still try to meet the new Minister for Education, Joseph Nsengimana. This all takes time and effort and is frustrating but we hope tenacity will pay off.

Our work continues to make changes to the pupils’ and teachers’ lives and it is highly appreciated not only by those pupils and teachers but by school officials and parents as well.  It is so important to have those at the grass roots ‘on board’ with any programme if it is to sustain.

Once again, thank you so much for your interest in what we do and the results we are bringing about. Your support is invaluable and hugely appreciated.

Many, many thanks and all best wishes,

Katy Allen-Mtui

Director