More Read for the Top

Our second school and first primary had 135 children in two classes at grade 6. We spent two days and had a wonderful time with them. One of the most delightful things is to see how the teachers take in what their children are capable of when challenged. Often they want to baby them through the rules and make exceptions for them. These kids shine when put to the test. Again, it is heartbreaking to see the waste of potential and brain power since probably 50% of these children will not go on to secondary school.
We gave all participants a locally made school bag and the three winning teams also received books. This again is part of the LEAP grant from Better World Books. In all we played 24 games with 20 teams.
The children put on two skits for us, drawn from the story books they had read. The picture shows the lioness that invaded the community in "A Scare in the Village'.

We shall meet three schools next week with a total of about 220 children.

Competition

with their school bags

A Scare in the Village

Winning teams

First Read for the Top

Monday saw the first session of Read for the Top, now that schools are back. We were at Shichinji secondary. The students here have done Read for the Top in Form 2 and are well versed in how it proceeds. However, the four week hiatus out of school during the strike seemed to have taken its toll on some who struggled with the questions on the set books. We were happy to see  a lot of good team work now. We decided to postpone this year's session for Form 2 until early in the new year since the exam schedule will make it difficult for us to be in schools.

Teachers and students concentrate hard

and listen intently to the questions

Schools re open

The strike has been called off! The teachers who did not report to work were not paid for Sept. The govt did not remit the deductions taken from the last 2 months salaries for loan payments. The banks froze everything in sight. So teachers were hurting (they are usually paid even if on strike!!) Then a move was on to recruit 70,000 'relief teachers' on a 3 month contract (that would have covered invigilation of exams and of course some teaching). Is that scab labour to break a strike??  It seems 10,000 have been hired, but their status is now uncertain. I am glad the teachers have taken the high ground and obeyed the court order, leaving the wrangling to a committee & conciliator to be set up. But I also hope the govt will act honourably. We shall see if schools open peacefully in January. But this means we start Read for the Top. Form 4 on Monday and a large elementary school on Wed, Thurs, Fri.

Winfred

Winfred wrote her high school leaving exams last November (2014) and received her results in Feb 2015. She did quite poorly in her elementary leaving exams, and in many cases those results would not have allowed her to go on to secondary. But she was accepted at a day school and completed her four years. Her parents must have struggled to pay her fees. She received an average of B- which is a very acceptable result. She was fifth in her class of 80 or so and the top girl. Quite an achievement!.

The grades are somehow translated to a mark and she was awarded 57 points. The cut off for a highly subsidized place at university was 58. Missing the needed score by one mark means she will not go on to further training, has no access to education loans, and will probably be married off to a man in the village with little or no income and she will struggle to feed and educate her children.

We were given some funding from generous donors this year for job training. We shall certainly include Winfred for consideration for polytechnic courses, even though what we can offer will be below her potential.

Math Tutoring Centre celebrates

Our Math Tutoring Centre has reached its first anniversary. Our results have been excellent, thanks to our great and faithful instructors, but we are actively seeking more students. Still not quite breaking even, although our aim is to improve math results, not to make money

A busy weekend

Saturday afternoon we attended the installation of officers of the Rotoract Club of Masinde Muliro University

A speech from the outgoing Rotoract President

Kakamega Rotary Club President administers the oath to the new executive

The new president receives the badge of office

Rotary pins for new member

Rotary pins for new member

Rotary pins for new member

Teacher strike in its third week

This is a very complicated story, but in brief the teachers were awarded pay increases in 2013 as civil service salaries were 'harmonised' across the board. These increases were never paid. After legal hassles the Supreme Court ordered payment back to 2013. It should be noted that these increases are from 50-60%!

The president has said he will not, cannot, pay and the teachers did not reopen school for the third term in September. National exams are looming, children are wandering the streets (see the article below) parents have paid fees (secondary boarding) and will not get a refund.

In the meantime, an order went out to close all schools except for Form 4 (HS leaving) and class 8 (end of primary) which will be sitting exams. But there are no teachers on duty. Also the government tried to force closure of all private schools where children are still learning, but were not able to do so. (Private schools are private businesses after all).

I found this article very descriptive of the situation on the ground.
http://www.nation.co.ke/news/Strike-hands-poor-slum-girl-a-bitter-lemon/-/1056/2879950/-/pijcw1z/-/index.html


We have had to cancel the Read for the Top session scheduled for this Friday. Although we are trying to get the teachers to agree to running a Form 4 contest next week, I am not too hopeful. The three small schools scheduled for Form 2 can maybe do the contest in early January. Secondary exams start  in October, so we cannot touch the  schools after the end of September.

That leaves all the primary (elementary) schools which should start Read for the Top in October. We are hoping and praying that there will be some resolution of the impasse during the next week. The school year ends in December, so it will not be easy to reschedule the contests into 2016. Stay tuned.