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

This week is half-term. Last week Standard VII pupils sat their national examinations marking the end of their primary school studies. Standard VII pupils are mostly 13 and 14 year olds, and these examinations determine whether they continue into secondary school.

Since our last report Jane Firth and Anne Samson have both visited, and for the first time their visits coincided and they worked together. Jane continued working with the teachers and head-teachers from primary schools in Mabogini ward. Jane conducted a seminar on teaching basic mathematics and handwriting to Standard I pupils (7 year olds), and the teachers of these pupils were introduced to the necessity of using real (‘concrete’) items such as stones, sticks, and beans, for the children to count. Jane demonstrated the teaching of addition and subtraction using straws – individual straws, and bundles of ten straws tied together – to show the meaning of units, tens and hundreds. The teachers were given these and other materials to use with their pupils, and on the last day of the seminar they made more of any materials they particularly wanted to use. Jane visited some of the teachers in their classrooms in the week following the seminar, and was delighted by the teachers’ enthusiasm, and their willingness to try to implement the new methods of teaching.

Anne Samson spent time meeting head-teachers, school inspectors and the district education officer to discuss how the work conducted within our Whole School Development Programme is progressing and what needs there are. Anne then planned with George Kasenga, our Programme manager, work for the next three months. Anne and Jane worked together to give a most valuable one-day session at Singa Chini Teacher Training College attended by the Teacher Training tutors and most of the district school inspectors. Jane demonstrated her teaching methods to use with young learners, and Anne developed this to show the real meaning of participatory teaching/child-centred learning. Within these methods are many ways of assessing the pupils’ progress. This led to a discussion on assessment, marking and evaluation. Such were the differences of opinion between the tutors and inspectors on the needs and merits of different ways of assessing pupils that a special session will take place in October to try to reach some conclusions. We are delighted that our work is now enabling such important issues to be openly discussed, and enabling these main stakeholders to query the interpretation of government policy.

George Kasenga has been active since Jane and Anne’s visit doing follow-up work in the schools and noting any needs and problems.

In August Dilly Mtui and Katy Allen met the Prime Minister, the Hon. Mr Pinda, to show him the sample books of the proposed course for teaching English in the primary schools. The book project is progressing and will be presented to the President soon.

Later this month Jane Firth returns to further her work in Mabogini ward. A new volunteer, Jane Bentley, will start a three-month assignment intending to support the teachers with basic mathematics teaching. In October and November Anne Samson will host two more meetings of the Network of UK charities which work in education in Tanzania, which was started in June this year.

We are pleased with the steady progress we are making, and how we now have the confidence of government officials to work so openly with us. We remain convinced that only long-term projects can hope to bring about any lasting change, and we thank all our donors who support us so generously in this.

13th September 2011

The primary schools are now closed for their long, mid-year holiday, and will not resume until 4th July. However, in many schools there is daily tuition for the pupils in Standard VII who sit their national examinations in September. Those examinations will determine which pupils are offered places to continue their education into secondary school. Most Standard VII pupils are 14 years old, and so this is a critical stage in their young lives.

In April we held a most successful three-day training course for head-teachers and their deputies from 11 primary schools in Mabogini ward. The training was run by Mr Evans Lushakuzi who has worked with us since 2006. The participants were highly motivated and were very keen to glean as much as possible from Evans. They looked at principles of good management, styles of leadership, how to effect good delegation of work, and how to build an effective staff team. At the end of the third day each had written their own individual action plan. Our coordinator, Dilly Mtui, and the programme manager, George Kasenga, made a follow-up visit in May. They were most reassured to see that the teachers were implementing what they had discussed; in one school the head-teachers had sat with all her staff and written detailed job descriptions, and in another the head-teacher had designed a form for delegating duties to staff and the forms were in use with everyone aware of expected outcomes and deadlines.

In April the Director, Katy Allen, met the Hon. Minister for Education & Vocational Training, Dr Kawambwa in Dar es Salaam, and progressed discussions about the reintroduction of English course books for learning English as a foreign language in primary schools. Following the discussions Katy made a formal submission of the book project, and samples of the books are being printed in India.

George Kasenga has been busy preparing for the next visit by Jane Firth. Jane arrives in early July and will be with teachers of Standard I pupils in Mabogini to help develop their teaching of basic mathematics. George has also been liaising with Singa Chini Teacher Training College for a one-day workshop in mid-July in which Dr Anne Samson and Jane Firth will work with the College tutors to explore how participatory teaching or active-learning can be understood and adopted by the student trainee teachers at the College.

In the UK we have been involved in a Network Day. This was organised by Dr Anne Samson. Representatives from other charities working in education in Tanzania met in London. We discussed our work, difficulties we face and how we might work more effectively in collaboration on certain issues. The day was a success and two more meetings have been arranged for the autumn.

Jane Firth and Dr Anne Samson arrive back in Tanzania in July.

The generosity of our donors enables our work to continue, and we thank all of them for their support of, and interest in, what we are doing.

21st June 2011

The primary schools are now closed for the mid-term holiday, and resume on Monday 11th April.

In February Jane Firth returned for another assignment with us. This time we started work in schools in a different education ward, but still within the district of Moshi Rural. Mabogini ward is west of Moshi and we worked in the cluster of primary schools under Chekereni teacher-resource centre. During our preparations we met all the headteachers and briefed them about the work that Jane would be undertaking with their pre-primary class teachers and the teaching that we hoped the teachers would adopt after the seminar. One of the headteachers was concerned that she would be unable to monitor her teacher if she did not know the contents of Jane's seminar. For this reason Jane happily gave a one-day seminar for all the headteachers. Then for four days Jane worked with the pre-primary teachers on how to teach basic mathematics to their pupils, how to evaluate their progress, how to organise groups and group work, as well as a very lively session on story-telling in the classroom. For the remainder of her stay, Jane visited teachers in Marangu with whom she has previously worked and observed their progress and gave hands-on help where necessary. Jane will return in July.

In March we hosted our fourth workshop with District Education Officers and Chief Inspectors of Schools from the seven districts of Kilimanjaro region. This was held in Boma Ng'ombe in Hai district and, as last time, was facilitated and led by two trainers from the Business School of the University of Dar es Salaam. The topics covered in the three days ranged from managerial communication, building relationships and team-building, to conflict management and leadership and emotional intelligence. The fourteen participants, mostly newly appointed to their posts, enjoyed the workshop and the interaction and the opportunity to sit together and discuss problems in their work. They all requested another such workshop but to cover five days instead of three!

In the coming months we are holding a training seminar for headteachers in Chekereni, Mabogini, and Dr Anne Samson will be visiting to assess the progress of the programme and to plan its next stages.

Again, we would like to thank our donors for their support of our long-term work in the primary education sector.

31st March 2011

 Whole School Development Programme

The last three months have been quiet with the end of the school year in Tanzania. Schools closed on 3rd December, and before that the teachers were busy with examinations and end-of-year reports.

George Kasenga, the programme manager, attended a conference in Dar es Salaam, the third of its kind, on the theme of 'Practice on learners' centred education'. Officials from the Ministry of Education & Vocational Training outlined the proposed strategy for in-service training for government teachers.

The director was in the UK for most of the time, and was able to start to send material to India for the printing of samples of the books which we are recommending for use as course books for teaching English in primary schools.

Other organisations and projects have made contact with us requesting links or advice on how they can begin or further their work with local teachers. In the UK the director met representatives of two of those projects, and plans are in place to visit and see what they are doing early in 2011.

New volunteers arrive in January for work in local schools, and Jane Firth will be visiting again and giving more training seminars in February and March.

We would like to thank our donors again for their support, and hope that 2011 is a good and successful year for us all.

January 2011

Whole School Development Programme

We have had a busy three months with more training seminars, and liaison with education officials in Dar es Salaam.

At the end of September Jane Firth visited again for three weeks. Jane visited teachers who had attended her previous seminars for teaching early-years mathematics. Jane also gave a four-day training seminar for the same 22 teachers who were chosen by the District Education Office to attend her seminar in July. This is so that Jane's work can be shared as widely as possible. The seminar was on methods of teaching basic mathematics to Standard I and Standard II pupils who are seven and eight years old. Jane was, again, encouraged by the teachers' ability to pick-up the new ideas and to understand the reasons behind the teaching methods.

In September school committee members (the equivalent of school governors) from Sembeti primary school, Samanga primary school and Mengeni primary school received training for four days. The roles of the school committee members were examined, as well as the calling and conduct of meetings. Attention was also given to school budgets and possible ways to increase school income. Importantly, the relationships between the committee and other stakeholders such as the teaching staff, parents, the community and village government were considered with much discussion. The training was facilitated by a tutor from Singa Chini Teacher Training College and a member of the District Inspectorate.

All of our training sessions are conducted in Swahili so that the participants derive maximum benefit. Jane Firth works with someone to translate for herr. George Kasenga, the manager of the Whole School Development Programme, organised all the training sessions. George is also carrying on the weekly visits to local schools as part of the in-service training for the teachers and particularly the school management teams. However, his visits were interrupted in September by the national leaving examinations for Standard VII pupils and the mid-term break.

Dr Anne Samson, who supervises and researches for this programme, visited in August and September and attended many meetings in order to assess progress and to plan for the coming year. Dr Samson, with the project co-ordinator Dilly Mtui, also visited a project operating in Mikindani, Mtwara with a view to assisting and advising them.

The Director made four visits to Dar es Salaam for meetings with the Minister for Education, his Permanent Secretary and others. The Director also had meetings at Dfid and Uwezo. All of these stem from initial meetings in 2008 concerning recommendations for course books for teaching English in primary schools. The pupils' books emphasise sentence and structural patterns as well as reading comprehension. Each teacher's books is extensive with teaching notes and explanations so that the teachers are able to understand what to do in each lesson. It is hoped that the books will be adopted for national use as the teaching of English in the primary schools is poor and is affecting the future education of all concerned, particularly as secondary education is all in English.

We would like to thank our donors for their support, and we hope that our long-term approach to improving the quality of primary education is seen as the sensible approach. Short-term programmes or projects do not seem feasible for bringing about lasting change, and change by its very nature is a slow process if all those involved are to understand the need for it and the benefits to be derived.

October 2010

The workshop for District Education Officers and Chief Inspectors of Schools for the Kilimanjaro region was conducted by facilitators from the Business School of the University of Dar es Salaam. This was a great success. Since our last workshop in 2008 some new officers are in post, but all appreciated the opportunity to be together, and to learn about and discuss management and communication issues. We hope that we will run another such workshop soon so that this valuable forum can become an established part of their work.

In June, immediately after the primary schools closed for the long mid-year break, Mr Evans Lushakuzi worked with us again to facilitate a three-day training course for head-teachers. Head-teachers from thirteen primary schools attended. The aim was to enhance skills in leadership and management, and thus improve their capabilities to communicate with their teachers and to create happy, loyal teams. There was much discussion of specific problems in each school such as staff absences, staff arriving late to work, parents unable to pay mandatory contributions. The head-teachers participated enthusiastically in the exercises given by Mr Lushakuzi, and Mr Lushakuzi notetd that there was evidence of skills development in the head-teachers' ability to develop action-plans to address the challenges they had identified in their schools. It was suggested that the training sessions be offered to assistant head-teachers.

In July Jane Firth visited again. Jane visited teachers who had attended her previous seminars for teaching early-years mathematics. Jane also gave a four-day training seminar for 22 teachers who were chosen from the Moshi rural district. The District Education Office was keen for Jane's valuable work to be shared as widely as possible, and wanted recognized, good teachers to benefit from her in-put so that they could not only improve their own teaching but also start to impart some of the teaching methods to their colleagues. The seminar was on methods for teaching basic mathematics to pre-primary pupils of five and six years old. Jane was greatly encouraged by the teachers' ability to pick-up new ideas and to understand the reasons behind each stage of teaching the numbers and number-bonds.

All these training sessions were conducted in Swahili so that the participants could derive maximum benefit. Jane Firth works with someone to translate for her. George Kasenga, the manager of the Whole School Development Programme, organised all the sessions. George is also carrying on the weekly visits to local schools as part of the in-service training for the teachers, and particularly for the school management teams.

July 2010

• Photographic update July 2010 (DOC)

Whole School Development Programme - update May 2010

Dr Anne Samson, the researcher and adviser for this programme, visited in February. Anne spent time with George Kasenga, our new programme manager, planning the next stages of work. Anne and George had a meeting with the headteachers of the four schools in which the main in-service training is taking place, together with the ward education officers responsible for those schools and the Teacher Resource Centre coordinators who assist George with the in-service training. The meeting was to discuss progress and plans, and for Anne to help with ideas for future work. Anne and George also met the district education officer and the chief inspector of schools for Moshi Rural. They arranged that the inspectors will visit, together with Mr Temba of Singa Chini Teacher-Training College, and evaluate the teaching and learning in the four schools. This will then assist in assessing our work in those schools.

In March Jane Firth visited again. Jane gave a three-day seminar to teachers of pupils in Standard II to guide them in teaching mathematics. The seminar covered the work the pupils should know from pre-primary and Standard I, and looked at most of the Standard II syllabus but particularly the important topic of hundreds, tens and units and 'place value', and basic multiplication. Jane visited many classrooms to observe and help the teachers who have attended her various seminars on basic mathematics for pre-primary, Standard I and II. Jane found many problems with classroom management and organisation, and particularly with the storage of equipment, and handing out of equipment and materials to pupils for essential number activities. Jane was able to help with these problems and encouraged the teachers to use the pupils far more to take responsibility for looking after much of the equipment and materials. Jane will visit again in July and October.

The Hon. Minister for Education in Tanzania is proceeding with the charity's proposal to re-introduce an old English course for the teaching of English as a foreign language in government primary schools as a way of addressing the current crisis in language teaching and learning. A new course has been written by this charity for Standard I and II pupils in-line with the original proposal, so that the old course starts in Standard III as it is designed to do. Maths booklets to be used as guides for primary school teachers to improve their knowledge of difficult topics in the primary mathematics syllabus are now with a publisher in Dar es Salaam. These booklets were written by a volunteer who worked with us over many years helping the teachers in the classroom, and we hope that they might be adopted nationally as training guides. They will be in Swahili.

In early March the annual school outing to Lake Manyara National Park was enjoyed by 35 pupils from Masia Marangu and Masia Mamba primary schools. All the pupils were from Standard IV, and they stayed the night in the park hostel. They saw many animals but were disappointed not to see any lions. They were intrigued by the hot spring which is naturally hot water coming from the ground and is part of their studies of the Rift valley.

We are looking forward to running a workshop for district education officers and chief inspectors of schools from each of the six districts in Kilimanjaro region. This workshop will be facilitated by two people from the Business School of the University of Dar es Salaam, and will take place over two days and cover managerial communication, team-building, conflict management and performance management.

We thank again all those you have donated towards our work and given us support. This is very generous and is greatly appreciated.

• photos_May_10.pdf (PDF)
  

2010 has started well, and the next few weeks are set to be busy. We are pleased to announce that George Kasenga has joined the Whole School Development Programme. George has many years of experience as a tutor at government teacher-training colleges, and has worked with a large NGO for the past five years on a similar programme providing in-service training and support to government primary schools. George is now the WSD programme's Tanzanian manager.

Mama Mkure is working with the teachers in Mengeni and Sembeti primary schools, and Mama Sandi is continuing with Masia Marangu and Masia Mamba primary schools. George is now working with them and getting to know all the teachers, headteachers and school committee members.

Dr Anne Samson returns in mid-February for another visit to assess and plan. Anne will meet George and they will be planning for the next stages of the programme. George is very keen to develop training for the headteachers, and our work with school committee members is scheduled to continue.

Jane Firth arrives again at the beginning of March. Before her arrival George is accompanying Mr Temba (of Singa Chini Teachers Training College) and a school inspector for several days to visit most of the pre-primary schools whose teachers attended Jane's training workshops. They want to see how the teachers are getting on, and to assess what support they need. Jane will also visit as many as she can when she is here. Jane will also visit the teachers of Standard I (first year of primary) whom she assisted in her workshops last October. Jane will run another workshop, with Mr Temba, this time for teachers of Standard II, again developing the teaching of basic mathematics.

Suzanne Al Kaddah has just completed a short assignment. Suzanne is a trainer of primary school teachers and specialises in English as a foreign language. Suzanne met teachers in the programme's four main primary schools. In each school she gave help with difficult topics encountered in the English syllabus. Suzanne hopes to return but finding suitable dates to fit her college schedule in Abu Dhabi and the Tanzanian primary school term dates is a problem. However, Suzanne is on-hand to assist with developing some explanatory materials to help the teachers.

Katy Allen chaired a committee of six members in Dar es Salaam in January. The committee was formed at the request of the Minister for Education, and through the Tanzanian Institute of Education. The committee sat for three days with a brief to discuss and assess materials for the teaching of English in government primary schools. A report was submitted at the end of the three days to the Minister, recommending a new language awareness course for pupils in Standards I and II, and the reintroduction of a very thorough, detailed course for use in Standards III to VII.

In mid-February we are very much looking forward to a visit from the CEO of GlobalGiving UK. Sharath Jeevan plans to visit on 17th February to see the projects and some of the work that VEPK is undertaking and to meet those involved.

Many thanks again to all of you who are donating towards our work. Your generosity is very much appreciated and it is enabling us slowly to improve the primary education for Tanzania's children.

• Update_photographs_Feb_10.doc (DOC)

The last months have been busy.

Mama Sandi continues to give weekly training sessions for primary school teachers in order to help the teachers increase their knowledge and confidence. The Whole School Development Programme is extending to two more primary schools, Mengeni and Sembeti and Mama Mkure who is the co-ordinator of a nearby teachers' resource centre is to lead the work in these two school.

Jane Firth returned on 2nd October to give assistance to teachers of pre-primary schools and those of the first year of primary school. Again, her emphasis was on basic number work so that the children understand 'number correspondence', 'number bonds' and 'place value'. The teachers were introduced to many activities, including the use of number squares - or 100 squares - and dominoes, and the use of bottle top and kidney beans for counting, and bundles of cut-up drinking straws for the understanding of units and tens and their place value. They also worked on story-telling for the young children.

In August Dr Anne Samson, Dilly Mtui and Katy Allen attended the 6th Pan African Reading for All Conference held at the University of Dar es Salaam. They gave a colloquium on the work of the Whole Schoool Development Programme and the plans to introduce material for the teaching of English as a foreign language. The latter gave rise to significant interest and at the end of the presentation members of the audience flocked to the front desk to learn more about the availability of the material.

Katy Allen met both the Permanent Secretary and the Minister for Education at the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training in Dar es Salaam to discuss the plans for those English materials. In September Katy wrote and submitted a Concept Paper and it is expected that the plans will progress for the material to be introduced in the primary schools in January 2011.

Plans are in place for another workshop to be held for District Education Officers and Chief Inspectors for each of the seven districts that comprise the Kilimanjaro Region. Negotiations are progressing with the Business School of the University of Dar es Salaam for them to facilitate training in communcation and management. If all goes well the workshop will be held for three days in early February 2010.

Please see the attached document for photographs of our latest work.

Thank you again to all our donors for the invaluable support to our work. This is helping us to achieve our goals of dealing with all strands of the primary education system. We are working at the grass roots to find out the real problems, their causes and to try to solve them, and then we are liaising at District level and now at Ministerial level to influence some changes. There is still much to be done - slowly but surely we are improving the quality of primary education. Thank you all again and we are very happy to hear your views or to deal with any questions.

• Update_October_2009_photographs.doc (DOC)

Thank you for all the donations received during the April challenge; we were so successful we came second and won an additional £500 from Global Giving.

We have recently held a three-day training workshop for pre-primary Teachers from 19 schools in Kilimanjaro. Pre- primary teachers are essential as they teach 5- and 6-year olds the basics in maths, Swahili and English.

Jane Firth, a specialist pre-primary teacher/trainer from the UK, taught the teachers new techniques in:

· a practical multi-sensory approach to learning numbers up to 10, and the establishment of number bonds, · the mechanics of learning to write and the preliminary stages that pupils should go through. The most important development for teachers was learning that letters should be taught in ‘families’ and not straight through from A to Z.

Jane also showed the teachers how to make teaching aids from materials found in Tanzania. The teachers transformed old cardboard boxes, corn cobs, beans and plastic bottles into counting games, literacy aids and finger- puppets. Each teacher left with a box of materials to introduce into the schools the following week.

Jane will return to Tanzania in July to work with individual teachers to help them how further to apply their new skills in the classroom.

As well as the pre-primary workshop, we are continuing to run weekly teacher- training sessions in three primary schools and we are planning a number of seminars with other primary schools. The present focus is on the teaching of English.