Hello from Tanzania!
I hope all is well and you are enjoying your summer in Minnesota! The weather here is actually what I would call cold, especially when I go further up the mountain to Lushoto. In the morning and evenings I can see my breath and at night I use two blankets or my sleeping bag. Still, the days are warm but I am wearing long sleeves and a shawl these days.
I am writing today to ask you to spread the word and encourage friends, family and colleagues to contribute money to my Peace Corps secondary project. Every volunteer is encouraged to discover a community need near our school and help facilitate a solution. The Peace Corps has different kinds of grants which we can submit proposals. After discovering that a pressing need at the elementary school in my village was teacher housing, I worked with the leaders to write a proposal for a partnership grant through the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps Partnership Grant requires the community to contribute a minimum of 25% of the resources needed and then the American people are asked to contribute the remaining balance. Kongei Elementary School wants to build a teacher housing unit and a septic tank to support this unit. They are contributing 38% ($3,064.00) of the resources needed and are asking for the balance of 62% ($4,997.20).
Our proposal is very close to being approved by the Peace Corps Office in Dar es Salaam and they have asked me to start contacting people in America that can be useful in spreading the word and encouraging people to make contributions through the US Peace Corps website under our project title,
“Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School”.
Below is a summary of the project and background information about Kongei Elementary.
The website for contributions will be available in September 2008. We want to start the building process in December 2008. Your help will greatly assist us in accomplishing our goals. This project cannot go ahead without complete funding. Also, the project must be completed before I return to USA in November 2009.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to help me do my work and more important to help Kongei improve student educational performance through supporting teachers.
Peace,
Randee
I hope all is well and you are enjoying your summer in Minnesota! The weather here is actually what I would call cold, especially when I go further up the mountain to Lushoto. In the morning and evenings I can see my breath and at night I use two blankets or my sleeping bag. Still, the days are warm but I am wearing long sleeves and a shawl these days.
I am writing today to ask you to spread the word and encourage friends, family and colleagues to contribute money to my Peace Corps secondary project. Every volunteer is encouraged to discover a community need near our school and help facilitate a solution. The Peace Corps has different kinds of grants which we can submit proposals. After discovering that a pressing need at the elementary school in my village was teacher housing, I worked with the leaders to write a proposal for a partnership grant through the Peace Corps.
The Peace Corps Partnership Grant requires the community to contribute a minimum of 25% of the resources needed and then the American people are asked to contribute the remaining balance. Kongei Elementary School wants to build a teacher housing unit and a septic tank to support this unit. They are contributing 38% ($3,064.00) of the resources needed and are asking for the balance of 62% ($4,997.20).
Our proposal is very close to being approved by the Peace Corps Office in Dar es Salaam and they have asked me to start contacting people in America that can be useful in spreading the word and encouraging people to make contributions through the US Peace Corps website under our project title,
“Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School”.
Below is a summary of the project and background information about Kongei Elementary.
The website for contributions will be available in September 2008. We want to start the building process in December 2008. Your help will greatly assist us in accomplishing our goals. This project cannot go ahead without complete funding. Also, the project must be completed before I return to USA in November 2009.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to help me do my work and more important to help Kongei improve student educational performance through supporting teachers.
Peace,
Randee
Peace Corps Partnership Proposal
Randee Edmundson, Peace Corps Volunteer
Lushoto, Tanga Region
Tanzania
Community Contribution: $3,064.00 (38%)
The community contribution includes: bricks, stones, sand, hardcore, transportation of materials, skilled labor, and unskilled labor.
USA Partners Contribution: $4,997.20 (62%)
The partnership contribution includes materials for construction and finishing the housing and septic tank. (see attached itemized budget )
Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School
Project Summary
Kongei Elementary government school is very different than a typical American rural public school. The classrooms are very full and have only the very basic facilities, student desks and a blackboard. Learning basic math, science and English are some of the biggest challenges for students and retaining teachers that are able to have time and energy to teach these subjects is one of the reasons for their difficulties. The students and the teachers work very hard, but what they can accomplish is compromised by the fact that most teachers live far from the school, walking up to 2 hours to and from school every day. Attracting new needed teachers is also difficult when there is no teacher housing available near the school.
Discussing these challenges with the headmistress, second headmaster and teacher of math and sciences, and the school teacher/matron, they have explained to me that the most pressing need is to provide housing at the school site for teachers. Sr. Shirima, Headmistress, Rueben Masenga, Second Headmaster and their teachers know that they can teach more effectively, be more reliable and have more energy for teaching longer hours and teach to more diverse student needs if they could have a house provided near the school. Through this project, they hope to retain the excellent teachers they have and be able to attract new highly-qualified, committed teachers, resulting in a better education for their 1000 students.
What we would do is build a teacher housing unit that can support one teacher family or several single teachers. The unit would have a septic tank and toilet that can support the new housing unit plus an additional unit that can be added on at a later date. Currently there are two teacher housing units that are being completed (by September 2008) by the effort of the community. This housing was left undone when government funding ran out. Pictures at the end of this report show these teacher housing units that are in process now as well as the site for the new unit and septic tank to be built with these funds.
With three teacher housing units completed by May 2009, Kongei would be able to house several of their current teachers that are walking 7-8 kilometers to school and back home every day.
School Background
Kongei Elementary School is in a rural farming village of the Usambara Mountains. This area of Tanzania is the Tanga Region and is located 15 km from the town of Lushoto. I teach at Kongei secondary school that is in the same area but is a private school. The elementary school is a government school. The school opened many years ago as a girls middle school but changed to a primary school and has been growing rapidly ever since. This large growth is due to a change in government policy. Tanzanian elementary school education was not free until 2003. Starting in 2003, the government ruled that all children must attend elementary school and their elementary schooling would be free of charge.
The increase in student population has also meant an increase in need for teachers. Also, the school is not able to offer enough afternoon and evening tutoring for their growing number s of students because teachers need to walk home after day classes.
Currently there are 1000 students, 544 girls and 456 boys. The school has 14 teachers, 10 women and 4 men. As the headmistress has explained to me, in Tanzania the schools are expected to provide housing for teachers, yet, the school has no current housing for teachers.
Without teacher housing near the school, the current teachers can become exhausted from their long commute by foot and transfer to another school given the opportunity for a better housing situation. Also, it is hard to attract new needed teachers to their Kongei without sufficient housing.
Project Evaluation and Monitoring
The project goal is improve student achievement through enabling teachers at Kongei Elementary School to be more effective in their teaching, and enable the administration to be more effective in attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers. In addition, to have teachers available to teach evening tutoring classes to improve student performance.
Objectives:
· Teachers will be able to increase time spent and quality of lesson preparation including one or both of the following:
o develop more teaching aids
o include more diverse teaching strategies.
· The current teachers will not leave Kongei nor will additional teachers needed refuse an offer to be hired due to lack of housing.
· The teachers housed (6) in school housing will offer students additional time for tutoring during the week.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam (allowing them to enter secondary school) and earning passing scores will stay the same or increase in 2009. (53% in 2008)
Specifically we will compare the following data using current information and data collected June-September 2009:
· The time spent on lesson preparation
· The quality of lesson preparation with regard to teaching aids and diverse teaching strategies
· The number of teachers retained and/or added with reasons related to housing.
· The amounts of time teachers housed spend on tutoring students before or after school hours.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam and earning passing scores.
Community Change
Rueben Masenga, second headmaster, expressed the following change that he believes possible: People of the community will learn that when you put your minds and physical efforts together around a common goal and invite a broader community beyond your own village, that you can accomplish larger goals and most importantly, it will change the relationship with people across the world in positive ways. We hope that we can be together with people all over the world and one day we can be in one world.
To complete this project, there are community elders, the community leader, the school leadership committee, skilled workers, and professional teachers working together with the young people of the community. The young people will learn the skills of how to lead a community and to cooperate as a community to accomplish large tasks through pooling ideas and both human and natural resources. One outcome of this is growth in the capacity of leadership to define and meet the goals and objectives of the community in the future.
We will conduct a school committee meeting and community meeting after completing the project to gather feedback as to what was accomplished and how this project changed the people of the community. We will document comments which specifically express gains in community organization, knowledge of assets, opportunities to share skills and knowledge with young people, or the lack of these attributes.
Community Need and Beneficiaries
On my first visit to Kongei Elementary school, Sr. Shirima, headmistress and Sr. Alma, teacher and matron, graciously welcomed me, gave me a tour of the school and explained their priorities to improve the education of their 1000 students. Their list included such items as teacher housing, an additional classroom and building for school and community gatherings, and a water well to collect rain water to make getting clear water easier especially during the summer season. On future visits to explore ways to address these needs, teacher housing was always listed as the highest priority. The school committee representatives explained that they had the ability to manage with getting water and even the possibility of getting help from the government with building a classroom but, due to lack of teacher housing, they could not afford to lose their teachers or lose their ability to attract new teachers needed to improve the education and performance of their students.
Direct beneficiaries of this project are the 1000 students, the current and future teachers, and the community. The headmistress and second headmaster explained that the community will benefit because their children will cooperate with learning more because they will have more energized teachers, with more time to prepare lessons that can meet diverse student needs and increase student involvement in learning. Also, teacher housing at the school will increase the number of teachers that can teach afternoon and evening classes. In these ways the teachers are better able to help students pass their exams and continue on to secondary school.
Finishing the existing incomplete teacher housing unit and adding one more unit with these funds will allow housing for 6 teachers, 2 teacher spouses, and three children of teachers. The people directly impacted are these 11 people and the 1000 students at Kongei that will be able to have better lessons and more lessons in the afternoon and evenings.
Kongei Elementary school has shown improvement in student performance since 2003 when they had 30 students taking the leaving exams and only 8 students went on to secondary school. Since 2003, the number of students continuing to secondary school has increased (29 and 17 students in 2006 and 2007). In 2008, there will be 65 students taking the leaving exam (compared to 33 students in 2007) and these students have already shown good scores on their June 2008 terminal exams. In 2009, there are 99 students projected to take the leaving exam.
Kongei students have good performance on the leaving exams. Some, after passing, continue to government secondary schools and others sit for private school exams, doing very well and attending these schools for their secondary education.
Project Timeline
Activity
Time
Proposed dates
Community Meeting
1 week
Weekend of Dec 5, 2008
Preparation of construction site
2 weeks
Jan. 15 – Jan. 30, 2009
Collecting of stones, bricks, and sand
1 week
Jan. 28 – Feb. 3, 2009
Purchase materials
1 week
Feb. 7 – Feb. 14, 2009
Construction of building
4 weeks
Feb. 17 – March 13, 2009
Plastering cement inside and outside
2 weeks
March 16 – March 20, 2009
Installing glass and ceiling board
1 week
March 23 – March 27, 2009
Painting inside and outside
1 week
March 30 – April 3, 2009
Construction of septic tank
2 weeks
April 6 – April 17, 2009
Installing plumbing and stool
3 days
April 21 – April 23, 2009
Plastering toilet and chambers
4 days
April 24 – April 29, 2009
Completion (Allowance for delays)
2 weeks
May 15, 2009
Total
18 weeks
Randee Edmundson, Peace Corps Volunteer
Lushoto, Tanga Region
Tanzania
Community Contribution: $3,064.00 (38%)
The community contribution includes: bricks, stones, sand, hardcore, transportation of materials, skilled labor, and unskilled labor.
USA Partners Contribution: $4,997.20 (62%)
The partnership contribution includes materials for construction and finishing the housing and septic tank. (see attached itemized budget )
Construction of Teacher Housing at Kongei Elementary School
Project Summary
Kongei Elementary government school is very different than a typical American rural public school. The classrooms are very full and have only the very basic facilities, student desks and a blackboard. Learning basic math, science and English are some of the biggest challenges for students and retaining teachers that are able to have time and energy to teach these subjects is one of the reasons for their difficulties. The students and the teachers work very hard, but what they can accomplish is compromised by the fact that most teachers live far from the school, walking up to 2 hours to and from school every day. Attracting new needed teachers is also difficult when there is no teacher housing available near the school.
Discussing these challenges with the headmistress, second headmaster and teacher of math and sciences, and the school teacher/matron, they have explained to me that the most pressing need is to provide housing at the school site for teachers. Sr. Shirima, Headmistress, Rueben Masenga, Second Headmaster and their teachers know that they can teach more effectively, be more reliable and have more energy for teaching longer hours and teach to more diverse student needs if they could have a house provided near the school. Through this project, they hope to retain the excellent teachers they have and be able to attract new highly-qualified, committed teachers, resulting in a better education for their 1000 students.
What we would do is build a teacher housing unit that can support one teacher family or several single teachers. The unit would have a septic tank and toilet that can support the new housing unit plus an additional unit that can be added on at a later date. Currently there are two teacher housing units that are being completed (by September 2008) by the effort of the community. This housing was left undone when government funding ran out. Pictures at the end of this report show these teacher housing units that are in process now as well as the site for the new unit and septic tank to be built with these funds.
With three teacher housing units completed by May 2009, Kongei would be able to house several of their current teachers that are walking 7-8 kilometers to school and back home every day.
School Background
Kongei Elementary School is in a rural farming village of the Usambara Mountains. This area of Tanzania is the Tanga Region and is located 15 km from the town of Lushoto. I teach at Kongei secondary school that is in the same area but is a private school. The elementary school is a government school. The school opened many years ago as a girls middle school but changed to a primary school and has been growing rapidly ever since. This large growth is due to a change in government policy. Tanzanian elementary school education was not free until 2003. Starting in 2003, the government ruled that all children must attend elementary school and their elementary schooling would be free of charge.
The increase in student population has also meant an increase in need for teachers. Also, the school is not able to offer enough afternoon and evening tutoring for their growing number s of students because teachers need to walk home after day classes.
Currently there are 1000 students, 544 girls and 456 boys. The school has 14 teachers, 10 women and 4 men. As the headmistress has explained to me, in Tanzania the schools are expected to provide housing for teachers, yet, the school has no current housing for teachers.
Without teacher housing near the school, the current teachers can become exhausted from their long commute by foot and transfer to another school given the opportunity for a better housing situation. Also, it is hard to attract new needed teachers to their Kongei without sufficient housing.
Project Evaluation and Monitoring
The project goal is improve student achievement through enabling teachers at Kongei Elementary School to be more effective in their teaching, and enable the administration to be more effective in attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers. In addition, to have teachers available to teach evening tutoring classes to improve student performance.
Objectives:
· Teachers will be able to increase time spent and quality of lesson preparation including one or both of the following:
o develop more teaching aids
o include more diverse teaching strategies.
· The current teachers will not leave Kongei nor will additional teachers needed refuse an offer to be hired due to lack of housing.
· The teachers housed (6) in school housing will offer students additional time for tutoring during the week.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam (allowing them to enter secondary school) and earning passing scores will stay the same or increase in 2009. (53% in 2008)
Specifically we will compare the following data using current information and data collected June-September 2009:
· The time spent on lesson preparation
· The quality of lesson preparation with regard to teaching aids and diverse teaching strategies
· The number of teachers retained and/or added with reasons related to housing.
· The amounts of time teachers housed spend on tutoring students before or after school hours.
· The percent of students taking the leaving exam and earning passing scores.
Community Change
Rueben Masenga, second headmaster, expressed the following change that he believes possible: People of the community will learn that when you put your minds and physical efforts together around a common goal and invite a broader community beyond your own village, that you can accomplish larger goals and most importantly, it will change the relationship with people across the world in positive ways. We hope that we can be together with people all over the world and one day we can be in one world.
To complete this project, there are community elders, the community leader, the school leadership committee, skilled workers, and professional teachers working together with the young people of the community. The young people will learn the skills of how to lead a community and to cooperate as a community to accomplish large tasks through pooling ideas and both human and natural resources. One outcome of this is growth in the capacity of leadership to define and meet the goals and objectives of the community in the future.
We will conduct a school committee meeting and community meeting after completing the project to gather feedback as to what was accomplished and how this project changed the people of the community. We will document comments which specifically express gains in community organization, knowledge of assets, opportunities to share skills and knowledge with young people, or the lack of these attributes.
Community Need and Beneficiaries
On my first visit to Kongei Elementary school, Sr. Shirima, headmistress and Sr. Alma, teacher and matron, graciously welcomed me, gave me a tour of the school and explained their priorities to improve the education of their 1000 students. Their list included such items as teacher housing, an additional classroom and building for school and community gatherings, and a water well to collect rain water to make getting clear water easier especially during the summer season. On future visits to explore ways to address these needs, teacher housing was always listed as the highest priority. The school committee representatives explained that they had the ability to manage with getting water and even the possibility of getting help from the government with building a classroom but, due to lack of teacher housing, they could not afford to lose their teachers or lose their ability to attract new teachers needed to improve the education and performance of their students.
Direct beneficiaries of this project are the 1000 students, the current and future teachers, and the community. The headmistress and second headmaster explained that the community will benefit because their children will cooperate with learning more because they will have more energized teachers, with more time to prepare lessons that can meet diverse student needs and increase student involvement in learning. Also, teacher housing at the school will increase the number of teachers that can teach afternoon and evening classes. In these ways the teachers are better able to help students pass their exams and continue on to secondary school.
Finishing the existing incomplete teacher housing unit and adding one more unit with these funds will allow housing for 6 teachers, 2 teacher spouses, and three children of teachers. The people directly impacted are these 11 people and the 1000 students at Kongei that will be able to have better lessons and more lessons in the afternoon and evenings.
Kongei Elementary school has shown improvement in student performance since 2003 when they had 30 students taking the leaving exams and only 8 students went on to secondary school. Since 2003, the number of students continuing to secondary school has increased (29 and 17 students in 2006 and 2007). In 2008, there will be 65 students taking the leaving exam (compared to 33 students in 2007) and these students have already shown good scores on their June 2008 terminal exams. In 2009, there are 99 students projected to take the leaving exam.
Kongei students have good performance on the leaving exams. Some, after passing, continue to government secondary schools and others sit for private school exams, doing very well and attending these schools for their secondary education.
Project Timeline
Activity
Time
Proposed dates
Community Meeting
1 week
Weekend of Dec 5, 2008
Preparation of construction site
2 weeks
Jan. 15 – Jan. 30, 2009
Collecting of stones, bricks, and sand
1 week
Jan. 28 – Feb. 3, 2009
Purchase materials
1 week
Feb. 7 – Feb. 14, 2009
Construction of building
4 weeks
Feb. 17 – March 13, 2009
Plastering cement inside and outside
2 weeks
March 16 – March 20, 2009
Installing glass and ceiling board
1 week
March 23 – March 27, 2009
Painting inside and outside
1 week
March 30 – April 3, 2009
Construction of septic tank
2 weeks
April 6 – April 17, 2009
Installing plumbing and stool
3 days
April 21 – April 23, 2009
Plastering toilet and chambers
4 days
April 24 – April 29, 2009
Completion (Allowance for delays)
2 weeks
May 15, 2009
Total
18 weeks
