Whole School Development Programme  - December report 2011

The government primary schools closed on Friday 3^rd December, and the school year is over. The new school year will start again in mid-January.

In the last three months much has happened, but the most exciting news is that in mid-November Katy Allen, the Director, and Dilly Mtui, the co-ordinator, had a meeting with Dr Jakaya Kikwete, the Hon. President of the United Republic of Tanzania. The meeting was at the State House in Dar es Salaam, and Katy and Dilly were with this His Excellency for about an hour. The meeting, attended by some of the President’s advisers and aides, was to present to the President the sample books which form the course for primary school pupils to learn English as a foreign language. Aside from the excellent material in the books, and the many and varied ways of giving the pupils a solid foundation in the skills of speaking, reading and writing, and particularly of reading comprehension, the new development is that the teachers’ books give all the instructions and explanations in Swahili, with a mini dictionary and pronunciation guide. There are few teachers in the government primary schools who are teaching English with any confidence, and these course books will help to build their confidence and guide them through every lesson. The President was visibly enthusiastic and said that he wanted this project to go ahead. We are now liaising with one of his aides. A short mention was given on Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation radio that the meeting had taken place, and also the Daily News carried a paragraph about the meeting. (There is a photograph of the meeting posted with this report)

In October Jane Firth returned and, again working in Mabogini ward, she ran a four-day seminar for teachers of Standard II pupils (8 year olds) to help them with the teaching of mathematics. At this level the pupils are expected to become competent with addition and subtraction and multiplication tables and to be introduced to fractions. Jane emphasises repeatedly the necessity to use real (‘concrete’) items first with gentle progression to the ‘abstract’ of writing down a sum for the pupils to write down the answer. On the day preceding this seminar Jane was with the head-teachers so that they could get an overview of what their teachers would be taught in the following four days, in order for them to support their teachers. Jane Bentley, starting her three-month assignment, accompanied Jane Firth on her classroom visits to see how the teachers were coping. It seems that greater classroom management skills are needed, in order to facilitate maths games with the resources which need storing, distributing to the pupils and collecting back in again. The work now is to help the teachers, some of whom have over 60 pupils, to have confidence in using equipment, and to give their own pupils responsibility over much of the equipment. Mama Sandi, who has worked with Jane Firth on all of her seminars, has continued to visit teachers in their classrooms to give them support, and Jane Bentley has accompanied her.

Dr Anne Samson was in Kilimanjaro for a week in October, and hosted the second meeting for the Inspectors of schools for Moshi Rural District and the tutors of Singa Chini Teacher Training College to discuss ‘assessment’ of pupils’ work. The first meeting had highlighted great differences which were impeding the development of teaching methods. After much discussion it was found that different information flows from the central authorities to the inspectors from that which is given to the Teacher Training Colleges. This may be merely a matter of timing, in that one body gets more recent regulations and procedures than the other. However, both groups asked that Anne Samson and Village Education Project try to sort out this discrepancy with the central Ministry of Education and education and inspectorate departments. This will be tackled in the new year.

All of the seminars, visits and meetings were organised by the Programme’s manager, George Kasenga, who has also kept essential reports and records.

In the UK two more meetings of the Network of UK charities which work in education in Tanzania, were held. The last meeting in November attracted new faces, and the forum proved its worth in enabling information and contacts to be exchanged.

As 2011 comes to an end we are pleased to share these snippets of our work. We are achieving our aim of working to gain the trust and confidence of those within the primary schools, and then with knowledge of the difficulties they face we are promoting greater liaison between others in the government primary education sector. It is only with detailed knowledge of the ‘grass-roots’ that we can work with all involved to see what feasible solutions there are. Our approach seems to be working and we are optimistic that we can do even more to help in 2012.

None of this would be possible without our donors – whose generous gifts fund all our work. A huge ‘thank you’ to all of you who have so kindly given towards our work. On behalf of everyone who is benefiting from our work in Tanzania we hope that all our donors have a very happy Christmas and enjoy the festive period to the full.

Very best wishes

Katy Allen

Director

8^th December 2011