The Retired Teachers Council

Yesterday I met with the 5 retired teachers in the area to discuss the history of the schools and what can come of the future of education for Nyametaburo and Nyangiti. The meeting went awesome and I learned a lot about the school system here and about the history of schooling in this area. For example, in 1938 an Italian priest established a primary school in Isibania. Isibania (where I live) is an hour and a half's walk from Nyametaburo; and so any student from the surrounding area would have to walk that distance to school everyday in addition to their chores at home (farming,etc). It wasn't until 1960 that a primary school was opened in Nyametaburo, and 1993 was when the first school in Nyangiti was established. There are 6 prominant schools in total: 1 secondary and 5 primary. The remaining schools are as follows: Taragwiti, 1985; Siori Simba, 1990s; Isibania secondary school, 1968 (so children all over had to walk there for secondary ed); and Nyametaburo Secondary was opened in the past 5 years.

One of the retired teachers told me that they walked that 1 1/2 hours to and from school everyday in order to finish high school. He said that at one point he became discouraged and wanted to quit, but then Philip Mahochi's dad (Nuru's CDC Chairaman's dad) convinced him that he should keep pressing on so that he can be a role model for the other kids in his area and go onto University. So that is what he did. As we listened to his story, the other retired teachers echoed it with their own. From these experiences you can see the importance of having quality school in each area.

The RTC (retired teachers council) discussed with me the reason that many of the boys are dropping out of school. Around here dried maize and other grains are popular for growing and selling. The young boys see that they can earn some cash loading sacks of grain onto the trucks; and they also see that the boys who have graduated high school are doing the same, so they drop out of school and sit around until there is a truck to be loaded.

In stating this, the RTC stressed the need for a model school that can be seen by the community and surrounding communities as a school of prestige. Additionally, I had mentioned to them that I am thinking about a vocational center, and they too agreed that a vocational center would be key for those boys who graduated and doing basically nothing. One key point that they made was to offer classes in the morning and the evening so that the vocational students can go to work during the day and not be tempted to drop out. As far as the students who are at a normal high school, they will see how that there is additional training offered after high school, which will give them incentive to finish school.

** I would just like to add that all these are just ideas for now and nothing is set in place just yet. For the next 2 months I will be doing research and collecting data from the area to see what the basic needs are and establish a baseline of what a zero is equivalent to here (eg: zero= 1 secondary school with no desks or school supplies; and 10= 2 fully functional Secondary schools). So for now, I'm discussing these ideas with the RTC, but keeping my eyes and ears open to everything, and from there will decide my first move. **

The other thing we discussed was teacher training. One of my goals within the next 2 months is to visit the surrounding teacher colleges and get to know their curricula. Secondly, I'd like to convince them that they want to send a professor, at a reduced cost, once a month to the Nyametaburo area to teach a course and/or seminar so that slowly, slowly the teachers can receive certification.

Yesterday I also met with the entire staff of the secondary school and they echoed that they'd like to have training whilst maintaining their jobs at the school.

Today, I am in hot pursuit of finding a CDC officer for education (Community Development Committee). My deadline is next week. Please pray that I find a person of character who also knows a lot about the education system here. After lunch I am meeting with one of the retired teachers, Bramwell, to walk around to some of the mud and stick primary schools. He doesn't know that he's a candidate for CDC Officer. By walking around with him today, I will see if he is good for the position. Throughout rest of this week, I'm meeting with the different members of the RTC to pick the very best one. Just so you know, the reason I'm going for a retired teacher is because if there is actually a good teacher in a school, I surely do NOT want to pull them away from their duties. A good teacher, who is a person of noble character is a gold mine!

BTW, I took pictures of the house, but I still need to download them. But for now, here some pics I took using the photo booth application on my Mac. Here's a picture of my house, of the compound gate and our beautiful view, and of the day guard, Peter and I.

Oh, and also, the name: RTC, I just made it up yesterday. There is no official Retired Teacher's Council, but I would love for them to meet with me semi-regularly for wise council.