Frederick Sumaye

The Frederick Sumaye school is a secondary school 5km from Babati heading south along the Dodoma Road.

Introduction

The Head Mistress of the FT Sumaye School, Mrs Renalda Shayo, visited the Waangwaray Primary School demonstration farm to learn what lessons could be copied at her school. LTT followed up by visiting her school to see what progress had been made and found a number of cabbages growing in cement bags. Thus a friendship was formed.

Background on the school

The FT Sumaye Secondary School is a Government school that is owned by the community under the Babati Town Council. It was founded in 2006 with 68 students doing year 1 of O’level studies and now has 600 students (150 in each year group) with 16 teachers. There are 10 classrooms in use at the moment (spring 2011) , so while some have 50 in the classroom others have 75 in a class. There are two classrooms being built and 2 laboratories being build funded by the town council but whilst the work has started there has been no progress in at least 6 months. There are toilets with 4 cubicles for the girls and 4 for the boys, there is one staff toilet.  These are pit latrines with no running water. There is one teachers’ house under construction but it has not progressed in 6 months either. There is a dormitory under construction for girls but this is not yet completed and has not progressed in 18 months.

The school aims to provide a calm learning environment suitable to producing intellectuals who are able to cope with the changes that life is bringing to them, and to be respectful with good manners, integrity and honesty

Normal day

The students either walk or cycle to school. For most the walk is 30-60 minutes and distances vary between 3 and 8 km. This they do in the rainy and dry season every day, both directions. They can be quite tired when they arrive at school. They set off at 6.30 to arrive by 7.30am when they must register their presence with the class monitor and they receive a number. Once classes begin the number is used to identify who was late and so who is in need of punishment.

7.30 am	Clean the school
8.00am  -11.20am	Classes  4 x 45 minutes
11.20 am – 12.00	Break with porridge. The teachers will have tea (no cost) if they want snacks they must buy their own
12.00- 2.30pm	Classes
1.30pm – 2.30pm	Lunch. The teachers will eat different food from the students for which they pay 10,000 a month
2.30pm -4.30pm	Year 2 and 4 have lessons, year 1, 3 sports.
4.30pm	School ends but some stay and do revision

Meals

At the morning break porridge is provided. Some like it and some don’t. But all eat it because they are hungry and there is no alternative.

At lunch they are served Ugali and beans and once a week they have Kandi (maize lumps with different beans!)

No vegetables or fruit are served.

The students are not allowed to bring their own food to school unless they have a special reason.

The food is cooked in a kitchen that is made of wood and an iron roof. The walls provide minimal wind protection and little from the rain. The coking is done in huge pots over an open fire using firewood. There is no dining hall and the students sit on the grass, or the classroom steps to eat their meals. They are not allowed to eat in the classrooms

They bring their own plates to school and if they forget they get the stick.

Water

There is a school tap which temperamental. Water used to be the biggest problem that the students face, when the tap was dry they had to walk to the nearest tap is 1-1.5 km away. Collection of water was a punishment and a chore that needs doing which mean missing lessons. The water at the school often fails because farmers use the water to irrigate, and they manipulate the pipes to their advantage.

The World Bank has sponsoring the building of a water barrel on one of the new buildings to collect rainwater. It will provide 5-10,000 litres which will help, but only delays the inevitable. This water programme is not specific to Frederick Sumaye but to a number of schools in the region and fails to address the real needs of the school. This is a typical blue print solution that the World Bank offers. It is better than nothing. But the funds could have built a permanent well.

The Livingstone Tanzania Trust, working with the community, have dug a shallow well and installed a foot pump and a water tower. The school mow has water.

 

Cleaning

After registration the students start their morning chores of cleaning the school. The duties are divided by gender with the girls sweeping the classroom and walk ways while the boys collect litter. Under this system, whilst both have chores, it only goes to perpetuates inequality between the sexes. It would be better if both genders did both type of work.

The school has sweeps for the classroom but none for outside so the girls usually chop branches off the trees and use them. This system degrades the environment and is ultimately unsustainable.

If the cleaning is not done to a high standard they can be punished

Resources

The teachers struggle to teach without books and it becomes time consuming having to write things on the black board and be copied down, the ratio is about I book between 8 students for each subject in all year groups. The school teaches the following subjects: Maths, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, English, History, Civics ad Kiswahili. Each year group is missing approx 90% of the books that they need.

Punishment

Punishments can be collecting water from 1 km away when the tap does not work, or cleaning the classrooms, cutting the grass, but always it is the stick first,

The stick creates tension, breaks their attention, but also the fear makes them work harder, they don’t like the stick at all. The decision of what punishment to administer is made by the teacher and differs from teacher to teacher and can depend on their mood.

If students are late they want to know the reason first, if they think the reason is valid they are allowed to go, but if they think the reason is laziness then they apply punishment. Like collecting water or 1-2 sticks which is seem as a cheap and fast punishment

When there is on water the class on duty has to collect the water and miss lessons, the class changes weekly. This is also a punishment.

Any teacher can use the stick it is limited to 2-4 hits and the teachers cannot abuse this but there is no monitoring.

The stick is the first line, then alternative punishment, then if that fails they talk to the parents

The students would prefer that the cane never be used, they see it being used too often, for petty offences and can be up to 12 hits

Sports

Football, netball, volleyball. /the school colours are black and blue

School Relationships and Sexual Development

Relationships between boys and girls are not allowed at school. They can work together but if the teachers think that students are getting too friendly they will interview the students and punish them

The teachers will talk to the girls regularly about female development issues.

Student Empowerment

Each class has a Class Monitor, there are also school Prefects and a Head Boy and Head Girl. Monitors, prefects and head boy/girl are given time with the teachers who instruct them on various issues of leadership and provide a degree of ongoing mentoring. If the students are not goo they will be helped and if they fail to progress they can be removed, but this is very rare

Role of the Class monitor

The morning role class is done by class monitor and supervised by teachers on duty. Monitors are selected by the students and elected and they have to keep the classrooms clean.

Role of the Prefects

To become a prefect they have to apply for the position by completing a form, the teachers then discuss each applicant and see what job would be best for that person, be it cleanliness, discipline and they put a selection together. There is then a public interview in front of the school and the leaders are then voted on. This is the system for all schools.

Role of the Head Boy and Head Girl

These individuals have the responsibility of leadership whereby they coach and mentor other students about behaviour, development, studies and life issues. It is a big responsibility.  They are also required to act as the eyes and ears of the teachers and enforce the school rules. At a student meeting the head girl then asked the teachers to provide them with soap so that they could clean more effectively, she also will tell the teachers if the lesson are not being understood so that the teacher can alter their method of communication. The girls have respect for their leader while the boys see the position as a not representing them but just being another teacher.  It is a fine balance that needs to be found in this role.

A selection of potential head girls and prefects are selected by the teachers and elected by the school

The head boy ad head girl help the teachers know what is going on at the student level and help keep discipline and cleanliness. They act as the eyes and ears of the school, the other students respect the position. The position is open to abuse but a discipline committee is there to assess and advise on performance.

Student groups

HAKIELIMU  is an organisation for the rights of the students n Tanzania not visited this school

FEMINA deals with sexual health issues, talks to all teh school, it is a programme that was started in 2009 by the teachers.

There is a scout group where both boys and girls can attend, but there is no Girl Guide presence at the moment

Domestic life of students

The community are mostly subsistenace farmers and belong to the Iraqi Tribe. A typical day for the girls starts between 5.00 and 6.00 am. The early risers get up to pray before starting their day. All the girls have chores to perform at home but some do their chores the evening before so as to have an easier morning. The chores will include preparation of meals for themselves and sometimes their families, washing dishes and clothes, cleaning their rooms, the house and the yards.

The boys also have chores to do but they relate more to the keeping of livestock and so are gender reinforced activities. Genders have specific roles in the homes and this is not or cannot be challenged.

In the mornings they will be taking a bath, eating breakfast and getting ready for school. They tend to eat leftover food from the night before.

When the students get home those who don’t like the school food eat something before doing their chores and the girls will have more chores than the boys. While it is accepted that this is the way it is, all the girls will not copy their mothers and will ensure that all chores are shared equally between the genders.

Homework is the last thing to be done, usually when the students are most tired. For some this is done under electric light, for others illumination is provided by candles or paraffin lamps. The students are allowed to take text books home, but because they work in groups the books need to be shared. Some boys have bought a third of a book with their neighbours

None of them have weekend jobs.

Families

Parents primary school teachers and farmers. The girls lived in houses with 4-5 rooms with family and 3- 5 brothers and sisters, they all have fruit trees in the garden but none have fish ponds, some have livestock. All have outside toilets and reasonably close access to running water.

Family size varies between 4-12

In the future some want smaller families because they know that children are expensive and that resources are scarce.

One boy wants to wait until he is 35 and has set up his life before he gets married and has a family while another wants to finish his studies and get on with starting a family.

Teachers

Some live 4-5 km away, some walk, cycle or some by bus/car , it is hard in the rainy season as the roads are muddy and they get delayed and classes can be delayed.

Some teachers will be teaching 8 lessons a day out of 9 while others will teach 3 or 4, this is based on the subjects maths classes will be lots and civic not many. This inequality of work load is an issue and felt to be unfair. It is hard to give out and mark homework when there is no time to mark it, so it impacts on the students.

The teachers are also given extra responsibilities by the Head mistress and this is given out regardless of their teaching periods, but the HT tries to be as fair as can realistically can.

Salary ranges from 200,000 to 600,000 but no one gets that much

The government are supposed to provide free housing for teacher to live in, but there are none, and no compensation is offered to them for the rent they then have to pay.

The problems of the school are

• No laboratories to do practical work so all the work is theoretical
• The students live a long way away and are late and tired on arrival
• There is a scarcity of water which impacts on class activities
• There are lots of periods to teach, i.e. not enough teachers to meet the needs, too many students per teacher
• No houses for the teachers which means that the teachers cannot get as involved in school life and school activities
• The efficiency of learning is reduced by many of these issues
• There is no library for students or teachers and so no reference books to assist learning
• There is no dining hall, kitchen, store, some of the students eat on the neighbours land and the teachers cannot take responsibility for the students when off the grounds
• Biggest problem with the school is the water, sometimes the tap works and other times it does not, the system of pipes is poor and there is no well and there seems to be little knowledge about how that might be built.
• Shortage of books and learning materials

They hope that by twinning with a UK school that they can bring resources to their school and after initial communication start to develop cross curriculum activities and learning opportunities.

Community involvement

There are regular meetings with parents each term

There is a school dev committee with teachers, parents and the town council, but no students on this committee