Read for the Top

The children in the poor rural schools are amazing us all with Read for the Top. They are bright, enthusiastic and fiercely competitive. The group on the left in Esibembe came to us as we waited for our ride home and shyly asked us to take a 'snap' as they drank their sodas. A bottle of pop and a T shirt--the height of riches for these children.



The best school we have seeen so far is Kerongo primary (above) way out in the Maragoli hills. The finals were a ding-dong batle between four strong teams. In this school the Area Education Officer dropped in for a courtesy call, intending to stay ten minutes. She spent two hours with us, totally captivated by the competition, and wants me to do a presentation for all her head teachers. I hope she contacts me before the end of the month.


There were a number of parents present and they had decorated the classroom with bougainvilea twined in the window bars and bowls of flowers on the tables. The judge was a teacher from the neighbouring secondary school and we have agreed to run a pilot for the last year of Secondary (Form 4) to help them revise their set texts.

Here in Hombala (below) we used a classroom for our heats. This was the youngest group so far, but they are equally as sharp and motivated. There is no reason these children could not do exceptionally well in National exams with encouragement and focused teaching.
I have calculated it costs approximately $400 to equip a class with books, bells, T shirts and prizes. This includes a small amount for training the teachers -- not forgetting the soda pop for the winners!
These classes are large, with never less than 50 students. We leave the books and the call bells in the school so the teachers can use the strategy again for another class or even other subject areas. The Maseno area has formed a committee to run Read for the Top in their cluster of schools and conduct an area inter-school final. These schools are using the strategy to help their senior class (Standard 8) review material for the exams. So $400 is a small amount for a far-reaching impact.