Back on the ground in Kuria

On the 19th of June, as stated, I caught the bus from Nairobi to Isibania with Jake and Janine at 6 a.m.. Since then I have been crazy busy with catching up with Francis and getting all the future initiatives for the Education Program running. While I was away, Francis visited a project in Kisumu, all the teacher training colleges in the surrounding area, and sat in on many of the classes in each of the schools in our working area to evaluate the teacher and head teacher. What he found in the schools is that the head teachers were coming to school late, if at all, and consequently so were the teachers and students. In the classroom, the teachers didn't have the scheme of work posted on the black board or even written anywhere at all-- not even a lesson plan in a book somewhere. Basically, they'd stroll into the classroom with a textbook, read a little bit, and then leave the students to ponder on that 10 minute lesson. So Francis came up with an idea to put some coals under the administration and the teachers.

Education Advisory Committee:
Our first initiative is the institution of the Education Advisory Committee. The EAC is made up of 1 parent per school, the chairman of each school, a head teacher that represents all of the schools, the assistant chiefs of each of the 2 sub-locations, the District Education Officer's representative, Francis, and the Program Manager (me or Chelsea, my replacement). The role of the EAC is to monitor the quality of the education provided in each of the schools and to discuss and solve problems sited, along with any problems known in the community within the realm of education (i.e.- dropout). This past Thursday we all met for the first time to discuss the rules and roles of the committee and we nominated a chairlady, whose name is Veronica and is a parent at Nyametaburo Secondary School. They will meet the first week of every month to discuss any problems and/or solutions.

Pre-School Training:
During the months of July, September, and October there will be trainings for the Preschool teachers. Nope, I didn't forget August, its just that the schools are on break for the month of August and therefore the lecturers are doing work elsewhere. The total of 5-weeks of trainings will be broken into two 2-week sessions, and then one 1-week session. At the end of the 5 weeks, the teachers will be certified by the ministry, which makes them official Early Childhood Educators, which means that they will be MORE than babysitters!! The first session started today (Monday, 12 July) and so I went out to Kehancha (the district seat), where the training is held, to see the "students" and they were SO excited and happy. Surprisingly, there were more MEN then I thought there'd be! We had just sent out invitations to each of the school inviting their pre-school teachers and I just didn't think about men being here-- whoops, guess who's NOT gender-sensitive. Anyway, I'll report back at the end of the week on how things are going and get some pictures of them up here.

Along with the idea of pre-school training, the teachers also need a classroom to decorate and make the place more inviting for young minds to grow. As of now, they meet in a nearby church or in one of the condemned classrooms that no other class will touch. Therefore, its in our near future plan to have some classrooms built for them. Early childhood education is SO important because it sets the tone for the rest of their scholastic career!

Attendance Club:
Because attendance and drop-out is SO high, we are implementing an Attendance Club, which will offer incentives for the students to come (yes, bribery, ok, they need it!). The targeted audience, obviously, is the truant population, so they will be the members of the club-- specifically, the top 10 truant kids from each class--for starters. Because truancy is not always the fault of the child, but the parent, this club will allow the student to talk with the teacher about any problems at home. This is where the EAC comes in: if a parent is holding their kid home from school, the EAC will make it VERY clear that this is BAD. Here, community is so important, and if your community publicly "shames" you by everyone knowing what you're doing is wrong, then you want to change your behavior.

Achievers' Club:
It has the same premise as the Attendance Club, except that it targets the lower 10 rung of each class. This too, will give those students a chance to talk about life. For example, the inspiration for this was when Francis and I attended a ceremony for the secondary school. All of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place students got to come for a prize-- there was a prize for each subject and for each class. Just the same, the 1st-3rd poorest ranking students had to stand up in front of their peers. I found this to be appalling for one; and for two, made me think of something better to be done. There was one girl who had to stand for almost everything! I later found out that she is the oldest of her family and her dad has 3 wives and her mom ran out on the family a little while ago! NO WONDER she is failing!!! She looked miserable and probably wished she was never born-- you know-- can you imagine being that girl? So, that's what the Achiever's club is all about.

Campaign against dropout:
Francis and I want to launch a campaign against dropout for both girls and boys. Boys tend to dropout and become truck loaders in town, which leads to alcoholism and drug use-- amongst the obvious of ignorance. The girls tend to get distracted by boys by 8th grade (post-female circumcision) and decide that they are too womanly now to be a student and then dropout to marry. We'd like to bring in lecturers to the school to talk on these subjects. I know, Ronald McDonald telling me to stay off drugs didn't help all those out there in the US, but, if you don't try, you lose all around.


So, that is a sneak peak into my world here for now. The next team of people comes from the US this Wednesday and so we will be heavily involved in turnover with our replacement. I'll post pics soon!