Narnia comes to Tanzania

Today we started our library!

A culture of borrowing, reading and returning books did not exist in our school - there’s simply never been any books to lend before. But today, Edwina and Winifred carefully signed their names and solemnly promised to return ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ in 7 days. Our library’s first customers! Over the coming months we hope to continue to expand our current stock of 10 books. Ultimately we would love to see the unfinished library building completed and full of reading material.

The school year begins in January and Alice’s Form 1 class are on an English crash course. Primary school is conducted in Swahili and the jump to Secondary, where all subjects are taught through English, is vast. Everything from the alphabet to the solar system has to be covered in this month before students are launched into the full curriculum in 100% English. The differentiation needed for the group is somewhat daunting; however the universal language of drawing and mime has bridged a lot of gaps. Students are enthusiastic and have patiently adapted to Alice’s teaching style. After a shaky start, ‘sharing’ and ‘group work’ have now been embraced by most of the class.

Starting with nothing but a blackboard and some chalk, Alice has been trying to introduce some colour, critical thinking and reading material into the mix. Distributed pages from the Beano were met with delighted gasps from students. When asked to identify words they didn’t understand, ‘Santa’, ‘snow’ and ‘app’ all came up. Courtesy of our Christmas visitors some artificial snow was produced the next day, possibly only creating more confusion about this ‘cold sand'. Students in our school have never heard of Santa Claus, a picture only baffled them more...explaining a fat man in a red suit who comes down chimneys to deliver gifts at Christmas was possibly the most bizarre African moment yet.

As the weeks continue it is encouraging to see students learning more and gaining confidence in their own abilities. The realities of learning complex concepts through a fledgling second language are obvious and yet students are visibly committed to learning.

To read more about education in Tanzania, click here.