TEAA

Tanzanian Schools with TEAA Support
Nyakato Ngarenaro Moringe Sokoine Chang'ombe Nganza Bwiru Boys' Mpwapwa 2008. Covering 800 miles on the ground, a two-person TEAA school-visiting trip included two schools in Arusha and three in Dar es Salaam. Some had been visited as part of an earlier trip (2005, below) and all were recommended to us by people with good knowledge of secondary in education in Tanzania. Within a few months of our visit, funding of projects began at Ngarenaro and Moringe Sokoine in Arusha and Chang'ombe in Dar. 2005-07. Late in 2005 and again early in 2007 two TEAA-ers circuited Lake Victoria in trips that included visits to three Mwanza schools as well as Nyakato in Bukoba. The latter was home to many Teachers for East Africa in the 1960s who held their own mini-reunion (click for photo) at TEAA's 2007 Seattle conference. They and some friends have made Nyakato TEAA's most funded Tanzania school. 2005. School selection in Tanzania was a central goal of our 2005 itinerant conference. We began with meetings at the University of Dar es Salaam, where we were honored by a keynote address from President Mkapa, whom one of us knew 40-some years earlier as a fellow student at Makerere University. After our re-education to the current realities, we fanned out across the country to find old friends and schools to assist. More about 2005 ... This page updated, September, 2008.
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Nyakato

Ngarenaro
Faculty Portrait: Kneeling in the center is TEAA Representative Josephat Coelestine, who in the 1960s and 1970s was a lab assistant at this same school. Directly behind him is Leal Dickson who taught biology at Nyakato from 1962 to 1964. This photo marks their reunion in June, 2005 after over 40 years. At front right is teacher William Mashimba the school's designated communicator with us, concerning the schools needs.
	Academic News: Early in 2006 we learned that Nyakato had a substantial improvement in its 2005 year-end form 2 exam results. 150 students out of 191 qualified for continuation into form 3. School Assembly: That's Headmaster Laban Kansimba at the front table (right side). He encouraged students to speak up - to two TEAA visitors - with anything that was on their minds. They asked good questions!
Physics kit from the early days: During a 2007 site visit, Josephat expressed regret that lab supplies in the 60s - like this old physics kit supplied by Sweden at that time - seem, ironically, to have been of better quality as well as better organized than what is generally found now.
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Chemistry demonstration is being led by a student under the watchful eye of the teacher. The students, all girls, will then work in teams at tables that include storage space for chemicals, an arrangement that saves on set-up time.	Located in fast-growing Arusha, a city of some 300,000 souls, St. Joseph's Ngarenaro Secondary finds itself, not too surprisingly, mostly in the relatively tall building shown here.
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Moringe Sokoine

Networked computers, still a rarity - and with cables that go to the ceiling not the floor - is the handiwork of an American who spent several months here, assisted by the current computer teacher, a Tanzanian. Pentium 4s that were part of a TEAA assist are soon to be installed as servers to this LAN and to the Internet.	Recently installed headmaster Kwayu (second from right) was driving us down to the Monduli daladala park at the end of the day for our return to Arusha when we spotted his predecessor (at left). We stopped for a photo op with TEAA visitor Bill Jones and were joined by teachers making their way home.
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Chang'ombe

Known as the library, this room unfortunately lack books, tables, chairs and, consequently, customers, despite the school's status as the demonstration school of a teaching college.	Chemistry laboratory with over 50 students. Large work groups of seven or eight students get by with less equipment and a savings on chemicals, a major expense.
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Nganza Girls'

Staff of all Kinds: from left to right, here are: school nurse Geremana Lyimo, Peace Corps teacher Ryan Kadow, teacher Mr. Nyambaya, visiting South Korean teacher Yung Soon Kim in front of school secretary Tumaini Kidunda, visiting TEAA-er Ed Schmidt, head girl Adelina Michael, headmistress Anna Lopa appropriately in front, and head physics teacher Zachariah Kahema.

Party! Principals, TEAA visitors, teachers and nuns gather in Mwanza. In front from the left are Carol Heath and Sharon Hepburn of TEAA, then Headmistresses Anisia Nenze of Bwiru Girls' and Anna Lopa of Nganza. Ann Dickinson of TEAA, upper right, reports that this was part of a great 3-day visit.

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Bwiru Boys'

Mr. Frank Internet Cafe: The raising of the communication tower (left) completes the whirlwind implementation of TEAA-er Frank Mitchell's internet project.

Drawing on staff and student advice, but conceived, funded and installed by Mitchell within a 3-day period in late 2005, the facility puts Bwiru on the cutting edge of internet connectivity for Tanzania high schools.

At right, teacher and technology educator Jiganza Massaba inspects linked computers that are part of the gift.

The Planning Process: Frank consults Headmaster Elia Kissuu (left) and the students (center), then enjoys a light moment with another group.

Mpwapwa
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From zero to 12 in 60 seconds... or at least in a very short time; read on.

Revisiting Mpwapwa 40 years after her service here, TEAA-er Jonne Robinson was shown a computer room with 15 computers all apparently out of service. She quickly got us to provide funding to deal with this situation and the school now has 12 of these computers on active duty, as shown here. The year 2007 saw a followup grant for science books, faculty computer training and - since they have a substantial blind population - two Braillers.

Jonne Robinson writes:

During our July, 2005 visit to Mpwapwa Secondary School in central Tanzania where I taught in the '60's, Pat Gill (another TEAA-er) and I were shown a large, clean, airy room with computers, some still in their wrapping, lined up on long tables, looking forlorn.

Our guides on the tour, Headmaster Peter Naali and Second Headmaster Paul Mkondokwa, explained that they wanted to make what we saw into a computer lab for the benefit of students and staff. However, there were obstacles: some of the computers were secondhand and appeared to have had everything wiped from them, and the ones that were apparently new didn't function properly for reasons unknown. Nobody at the school had the skills to diagnose what was wrong, and, in any case, there were no resources to apply to remediation or buy necessary materials once the faults were found. Finally, there was no one with the knowledge to teach the others, though Paul had learned a bit from a friend and was very keen.

TEAA made a grant to the school and things are quite different now. Eighty percent of the computers are running, and books and programs have been purchased. The school has financed a cooling system and electricity supply to each computer. The computer lab has been organized so that the students can benefit from it, and, as you can see from the photos, it apppears to be a well-used facility.

The amount that has been achieved in a short space of time is impressive and shows what can be done if people are provided with the resources. Everyone at Mpwapwa is very appreciative of the contribution that TEAA has made, which is a reflection of what can be accomplished if resources are focused on a "doable" project. More still remains to be done to utilize the potential of the resources in the computer room, but when I think back to what has been done to achieve the promise that lay in that room in July, I am amazed.

2005, continued

The participation of top education officials of the nation and the university gave us a great opportunity to understand the context in which we would then operate for the next week, visiting secondary schools all over the country, including several we had taught at long ago. One of us linked up with a former lab assistant at Nyakato HS in the delightful small town of Bukoba. Mwanza, Tanzania's second city, was the scene of a joyous reunion as principals and faculty of Bwiru Girls' and Nganza partied with three former teachers from our group. Also in Mwanza another TEAA-er found one of his former students who had recently retired from being headmaster of his old school, Bwiru Boys. Mpwapwa hosted two of our women venturing by land from Dar. All of these schools subsequently received our support.

It was clear from Tanzania's Secondary Education Development Plan of March 2004 - presented to us at the meeting - that help would be welcome. The plan envisions a 5-fold increase for the entering class of 2010, resulting from sharply increased rates of primary enrollment and transition to secondary school. The plan stresses "the sciences, mathematics, languages [and a] community-based developmental approach intended to elicit greater participation from below."

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