Educational Institutions Visited

by Bill & Henry, Feb-Mar, 2010

TEAA entered 2010 without personal knowledge of half a dozen heads of schools where we had already provided substantial funding. This situation arose mostly through local changes and partly from happenstance on earlier trips. In any case, we had a principal objective: to meet them. Strong leadership is crucial for the success of schools and the principal is also the key to clear and productive communication about the goals of our assistance and about the priorities and specific choices among items that TEAA can provide. We came away confident that all the schools with which we work are in good hands, as noted in several of the comments below about individual principals.

Kenya

1. Paa ya Paa (Nairobi) is the art facility where Bill gave a talk as part of the TEAA 2003 trip. Among other services it provides a studio for young artists.

2. [name not retained] (Eldoret) is a recently started private secondary school serving some needful students from Sudan, Maasai-land and other distant places.

3. Moonlight (Bungoma) is an elementary school run by Eunice Nandokha, the wife of TEAA representative Enoch Nandokha.

4. Butonge (Sirisia/Bungoma) is a boys' secondary school at which multi-year TEAA assistance, especially our library project, was interrupted by a change in management. The librarian has provided contact in the interim. The new principal understands the challenges and seems to be getting very sensible help from the new Board chair.

5. Wamalwa Kijana (Bungoma) is a rapidly growing mixed sexes secondary school planning to become all-boys. It may be best to wait and see how this works out.

6. Nalondo (Bungoma) is the current locale of a science teacher that we met elsewhere and regarded highly on earlier school-visiting trips.

7. Lunza (Lunza/Butere): Although a 1961 colleague of Ed Schmidt is the board chair here, we had not met the principal. While the library nears completion they are using an inter-library loan plan but report that the cost is high. Water resource schemes are in place, or nearly so. Ed had recently applied for funding.

8. Mukuyu (Suna/Migori): We had missed the (fairly new) principal on an earlier trip. Strong leadership from both her and her deputy have improved the physical plant and exam scores at this mixed school. We also had good interaction with the faculty.

9. Gunga (SW Kenya): We did not make the rough journey this time but met with the principal at his home in Migori. TEAA has helped mainly with lab equipment and we recently provided books for their new independent, recreational reading program.

10. Oruba (Suna/Migori) with 120 students is the only all-girls' secondary school in its district. Lab building begun in 2004 is not complete. Exam scores are very low.

Tanzania

11. Ngarenaro (Arusha): Sister Shobha, the new principal, is the one who reported recreational reading at all levels of students and staff. The head of English and the computer teacher are unchanged and the students are doing well on exams, especially in the sciences. The LCD projector sees use across the curriculum. They are planning to move the computers into a larger room to relieve crowding.

12. Notre Dame Njiro (Arusha): Sister Shaija, formerly of Ngarenaro, was pleased to report a large single-year enrollment increase in the existing classes (now forms 2 and 3) to an average of 27 and there are 62 new form 1 students.

Each of the two foregoing schools at one point received a large shipment of books that are well organized on the shelves. There is copious literature and some math and science books with nicely handled supplementary material.

13. Moringe Sokoine (Monduli): Mr. Kwayu is still in charge, faculty seem to like him and the students turned in improved exam scores, moving the school from the top 30% nationally to the top 15% (partly caused by the addition of many new schools which did less well). I saw an excellent interactive form 5 chemistry class taught by the head of science; he's organized, articulate, patient and knows his stuff.

14. Weruweru (Moshi) is a large, all-girls, school with 650 students. It's all A-level which was not in session so we did not see the teacher we met last year who is now the principal. We did meet the new deputy who arrived a few months ago after a few years of additional education in the US. The computer situation did not look great. They are eager to get a beamer (projector).

Zambia

15. ICT Ladders (Lusaka): By imparting computer literacy skills to 6th-to-9th graders from low-income neighborhoods, this after-school project seeks to put the graduates of its training on an equal footing with other kids entering high school or, if they don't make it to high school, as is common, to make them more employable.