During yesterday morning we went to visit three local schools which are in the residential area of Mtomondoni. The first school was called Rescue Centre Mtomondoni .
It consisted of 165 children aged between 2 and 7years. The classrooms were made from iron sheets and they were lacking basic resources such pens, books and desks. Rescue Centre has 3 teachers and a school director, however since the children can only afford to pay 200 shillings per month (around £1.60) they are unable to employ qualified teachers and instead rely on volunteers.
They are attempting to run a food programme for the children at lunch time, however the kitchen facilities are limited and they have no reliable source of food. Despite these challenges the school seems determined to provide local children who aren’t able to afford to go to school elsewhere.
The second school was called ‘Victory Academy’. It is a nursery school with 65 children between the ages of 2 and 5 years. They have a small building with three classrooms and two fully qualified teachers and a cleaner, since this school has been established for several years now. They also make a lot of their own resources, demonstrating their dedication and hard work attempting to provide the children with the best quality care possible. Each child contributes 300/= per month (around £2.80). For example, the teachers often do not get paid; or receive very small amounts each month. The school runs a feeding programme and each child can pay 25/= per day for school lunch (around 20p). Alternatively children can bring packed lunches from home, many struggle to receive food at lunchtimes. We were really impressed with the positivity and motivation of the two teachers here. They were overwhelmingly dedicated to providing a high standard of education to local families who cannot afford normal school fees.
Finally we visited New Life. This school only consists of 1 classroom with around 40 students attending each day. The school starts at baby class and finishes at SD4 also; there are only 2 teachers at New Life which are only qualified to teach up to SD2. This school doesn’t have its own resources as it’s rented so the equipment is along with the building. As they are renting they have to share a toilet with many other students in the building.
Each student is expected to pay 300 shillings per month (around £2.80) ) this is not including food as this school does not have a feeding programme so students are expected to bring it from home or buy from the local places. New Life is a school which puts education before anything else; they give their best to provide good education and care to all their students. They are hoping to soon move into a building with 4 classrooms, a toilet and only them on the site.
All these schools were a pleasure to visit and were truly inspirational. We look forward to taking some resources for them as soon as possible
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