School Visits and Funding Choices

Henry Hamburger and Bill Jones

Overview of the Schools

Starting in Kampala and finishing in Dar es Salaam, we visited a total of 12 schools over a three week period in April, 2008. Most have roughly equal numbers of boys and girls, but four are all-girls schools. Two of the latter are the largest schools TEAA has ever visited: Jangwani in Dar es Salaam with 1,500 students and Tororo with 1,300. Another Dar school, Tambaza, has 1,000 students, making it the largest all-A-level school in the country. Most of the other schools we saw have enrollments between 450 and 650. Kenya now follows the 8-4-4 pattern for primary, secondary and university, but Uganda and Tanzania still have A-level and each school we visited in those countries had between three and eight different combinations of courses available for forms 5 and 6.

Mostly we saw old partners in Uganda, new prospects in Tanzania and schools out of session in Kenya. In Uganda, we saw all four of TEAA's currently assisted schools. In Tanzania we went to five schools, all as yet unsupported by us except for one recently delivered pallet of computers that has been shared between two of them, Ngarenaro Girls in Arusha and Moringe Sokoine an hour away. To make room for all these new schools within our allotted three weeks of visiting, we omitted some others that Ed and Henry saw on the Nov-05 and Feb-07 trips. We skipped the two assisted schools in the Migori (Kenya) area which is still unsettled after the troubles; we did not visit Nyakato (Tanzania), which we hope others will soon visit; and we did not go to any Mwanza schools.

In Kenya the term had just ended, but we managed to contact both of our schools in the Bungoma area. One of them, Wamalwa Kijana, had students available, even though it was Saturday, to carry out an impressive array of science experiments for us. For Butonge, we arranged a long visit with the deputy headmaster, soon to be acting head, at the home of our area representative. Finally, while out for a walk in Kapkitony, southeast of Eldoret, we happened upon the deputy head of the small girls' school there, had an interesting discussion and saw the library.

Existing Forms of TEAA Assistance

TEAA conversations with school heads routinely include a discussion of the school's greatest needs in the realm of academic equipment, and that was the case this time as well. Here are descriptions of the various types of things we have given or funded.

Ø Books, Lab Equipment and Used Computers. Most of our recent assistance has consisted of new textbooks, laboratory equipment and used computers. In addition, some of us as individuals have shipped used books.

Ø Computer Repairs. A fair number of the computers that World Computer Exchange accumulates and delivers to East Africa for us have not been in working condition when they arrive. WCE says that they are ok when they leave the US, so perhaps the problem is with packing or in-transit handling. In any case, we have been encouraging schools to diagnose the problems themselves to the extent that they can, get estimates where necessary, have the low-cost problems fixed and send the bill for our consideration. Over time, some computer repairs can be avoided by the use of a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) for surge protection. We have provided these to at least one school in the past and got another spontaneous request for a lot of them this time.

Ø Digital Libraries. We have provided six schools with one or two digital libraries each. These external hard drives provide a huge amount of academic material, making it accessible with software that gives the look and feel of browsing the internet - minus the porn, viruses, pop-up ads, delays and monthly fees. After a long wait these devices finally shipped out recently and two of the schools have reported successful installation, but it is too soon to tell how beneficial they will be.

Ø Internet Connectivity. Frank Mitchell single-handedly created an internet cafe at a school over two years ago and funded its operation for over a year. On this trip, another school asked for startup costs for Internet access. They say that they will be able to afford the monthly fees on their own. We have asked for a breakdown of the costs.

Ø Scholarship Program. Outside of equipment, Arlone Child has organized and raised - as well as provided - the funding for a long-running scholarship program for over 30 students at one school.

Possible New Forms of Assistance

On this trip, Bill brought an additional option to the table. At each meeting with a principal, he included a substantial discussion of the merits of independent reading, for individual satisfaction, pleasure and knowledge, for the development of lifetime habits, and because of its benefits for language skills, including writing. At some of the schools the head English teacher participated in the conversation. The responses were generally positive and in some cases immediate and enthusiastic, even spontaneously using the phrase "culture of reading." The benefits of such a project can come from just 20 minutes of reading a day, provided it happens every day. Students keep a log with summaries of what they have read, but these are not to be graded except to note language errors. Bill has honed this kind of project over years of experience with it and has offered to work with schools in a coaching capacity.

In addition, the school heads brought their own requests to the discussions. All of these ideas were reasonable, none is entirely new to us, and in fact we have earlier funded some on a trial basis.

Ø Books for Independent Reading. The financial role of TEAA in the reading project would be to fund the purchase of a wide range of appropriate reading material. We discussed local availability and learned that suppliers have useful lists for such a purpose, including lists of books by African authors. Books would be selected and purchased by the individual school. We believe the project can be carried out for under $1,000 for any but the largest schools.

It probably makes sense to start with the schools that were enthusiastic about the idea, possibly starting in form 1 as one piece of a strategy for building up interest among students. Certainly one must confront the obstacle that a 'culture of examination' poses to a project that calls for reading as an adult would do, for oneself and not for a course.

Ø Projectors. We have now been asked by five schools to fund projectors capable of showing a whole class what's on the teacher's computer screen. These devices are now widely available in university classrooms in the US. TEAA had a lone request for one about two years ago and, after discussion, we decided not to meet that request. Issues raised by those opposing it included the possibility that it could promote a passive attitude in students and that the substantial amount of money involved might be more usefully spent on other items.

On this trip three of the four schools in Uganda requested this type of projector, perhaps in part because that country is committed to increased use of computers and the Internet in schools. We saw a borrowed one in use in a chemistry lab, where it enabled the teacher to stay closer to the students and present prepared overview material without becoming distracted by real-time blackboard management. With the request now coming from many schools, we need to think again about our vow to respect their priorities. A compromise could be to start with one school on a trial basis. A likely candidate is the one where we saw strong technical support from an Indian firm that has developed materials for use in this context that are consistent with Uganda's national curriculum.

Ø Chemicals and Weighing. TEAA has been eager to furnish things that are visible and that last. Chemicals do not last and we have never provided them, even though we have often been told that they are a necessary and substantial expense. There is, however, a way that we can ease this problem in a lasting and visible way: by the purchase of highly accurate weighing devices that make it possible to use smaller amounts and still keep errors to a small percentage of the amount measured. Elementary work may simply involve the existence of a particular product: a gas emitted under water manifests itself as bubbles; if collected and exposed it to a lit match it either burns (pop!) or not; and so on. But at a more advanced level one must confirm quantitative aspects of reactions, and for that it is necessary to begin with precisely measured quantities.

High quality mechanical scales cost around $250 and electronic weighing devices run $450-500. We supplied one of the latter to a school about two years ago and on this trip another school requested one. Also, we noticed one of these on this trip at one of our smallest schools.

Ø Library Furniture. One school was very eager for us to fund chairs for their library. They have the space and the tables and say they can get good quality metal chairs made for about $20 apiece. They would much prefer these to the cheap plastic ones which they say break too quickly. They need at least 50 of whatever they get. This would not be an altogether new direction for us. A couple of years ago another school, through a misinterpretation, got chairs and some locally made tables for their library - along with the intended books - in a project that fortuitously became a resounding success.