SOS Schools in Tanzania

SOS Nursery School Arusha

• Admission and student statistics

A total of 30 children were admitted in January 2008 in the nursery school – 1 out of which 1 was from the SOS Children's Village Arusha. The total number of children in the nursery school was 90 with breakdown as per the table below:

                     SOS CHILDREN         NON SOS CHILDREN  ALL CHILDREN

• Staff Issues

The nursery school had a total 9 staff (6 teachers, 2 cleaners/cooks and a gardener) as at December 2008

• Special Events

• On 28 March 2008 the nursery school celebrated end of term class party where children were dressed with colorful home dresses. They all enjoyed the party.
• At the end of the first term and second term progress reports were prepared and parents were invited to the nursery school to discuss the progress of their children with their respective educators.
• The SOS Nursery School Arusha celebrated the eighth graduation ceremony colorfully on 28th November 2008 and 30 children completed the 3 years of nursery school education offered by our SOS Nursery School.  Various activities were presented to mark the occasion.
• The school had an excursion for all nursery school children. Class 1 and 3 children visited Tarangire National Park while Class 3 visited Arusha National Park.
• A parent- teachers meeting was held during the second Term and the third term.
  

SOS Primary and Secondary School Arusha

The combined SOS Primary and Secondary School opened in 2003. It has space for about 450 pupils in seven primary and six secondary classes.

The SOS School Arusha follows the Tanzanian Education System. Education offered by the school is based on the cultural, religious and economic conditions of the country. In this context the curriculum of instruction of the school is based on the National Syllabi prepared for English medium schools.

In the year 2008, the school had a total of 26 students of first batch Form IV candidates who sat for the Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE). This is an indication of the organisation’s output and confirms that the school has further developed.

• At the end of 2008, the school had a total of 383 students (251 in primary and 132 in secondary schools). Out of which 90 pupils/ students (44 girls and 46 boys) were our children from the SOS Children's Village.
• The School operates in communities of economic hardship. In 2008 the school offered full scholarships to 50 children (12 in primary and 32 in secondary schools) to ensure that economically underprivileged members of the community are not excluded from attending at the SOS School. The school covered all the necessary school expenses – school fees, school uniform and stationary for such children. Besides the school supported another 50 beneficiaries (in five nearby government schools) under its extended scholarship programme. The programme was aiming at improving access and equity to education through provision of educational materials and school uniforms and covering education related miscellaneous expenses in the schools where they are.
• The target set for the academic performances is that every child shall obtain an average of not less than 60% in all subjects in our internal examinations.
• About 94.4 % of the primary pupils have scored beyond the school pass (60% and above) in the annual cumulative assessment, while very few pupils (5.57%) scored below 60% in the annual cumulative assessment.
• Comparing the academic performances of the primary school children by category (Community vs SOS children) it was observed that 97.6% of the community children scored 60% and above which is higher than the SOS group (87.9%).
• In 2008 the school had its first Form IV candidates who sat for Certificate of Secondary Education Examination (CSEE). The school did well in Form IV Mock examination. The school was in position 12 out of 121 schools. We also expect to get reasonable results despite of the suspected nation-wide leakages observed in the national examinations.
• On 24 October 2008, the school celebrated the 1st Form IV and the 2nd Std VII Graduation Ceremony of the SOS School Arusha. This has proved our output (first batches) and confirmed that the school has changed for the better. The event witnessed the graduation of 77 graduands. Amongst the individuals who graduated were, 16 community youth, who had been attending basic computer training for the past one year at our vocational training center on scholarships offered by our school. From the second round training another 7 trainees were awarded certificates upon successful completion of the programme training on the school closing day. This is an indication of how the school is committed to uplift the development of the local community through improving access, equity and quality of education delivered. 
• On 28th November 2008 the school was officially closed for one month holiday. To colorfully mark the day, various activities were presented by the pupils/students. Some of the activities presented were: football, J.V , coral verse, fashion show, balloon race, message in the form of songs, poem, art exhibition etc. Pupils/students were awarded prizes for outstanding academic performances, good behaviour, smartness and participation in co-curricular activities.
• On 1st December 2008 the school in collaboration with Selian Lutheran Hospital and Olturmet ward celebrated World AIDS day. To mark the day various activities like: songs, traditional dances, sports and games were presented.
  

Staff Update

• In the year 2008 including the newly recruited teacher, who specialized in Commerce and Business education, the school had a total of 19 Educational (teaching) staff, 2 administrative staff, 1 librarian and 3 Support staff(2 cleaners and 1 handy man). Besides the school has been employing part-time teachers to cover some subjects as biology/ chemistry, French, vocational skills etc.

Co-Curricular Activities

• In addition to the regular academic programmes a full range of co-curricular programmes were offered.  These give a varied educational experience for the pupils/ students in which to develop their talents and interests in such activities as football, volley ball, debates, choir, poems, traditional ngoma, art and craft etc.
• Talented students with assistance from an art teacher prepared more than 120 different permanent teaching aids on canvas. This had significantly contributed for the establishment of the school’s pedagogical resource center. The advantages of preparing such homemade teaching aids are cost effectiveness and time saving, which takes into considerations inputs from teachers.
• Various educational field trips were organised for the secondary as well as primary pupils. The aims of the field trips were to give the pupils/students real life experience and offer the most direct type of learning.
  

School Revenue

• Concerning the issue relating to school revenues payments, considerable numbers of parents do not pay the fees on time (during the first week of each term). The school has been reminding the parents through letters to put more emphasis on paying school fees on time and collection of outstanding bills of school fees and other school revenues.

Visits Made to The School

• On 17 January 2008 Ms. Lynn Julia Zubeda, form Better Future, Netherlads visited our school. The purpose of her visit was to see progress of implementation of the objectives set by the stakeholders who participated in the one week capacity building workshop which was organised by Better Future in 2007.
• On 6 March 2008, Mrs. Ruth Mutumba, Village Director of the SOS Children's Village Entebbe visited our school.
• On 7 March 2008 a group of School Inspectors, led by Mr. Eliakana Y.P. Shao, School Inspector, North Western Zone visited the school. The purpose of their visit was to inspect the overall activities of our school. After their visit the inspectors commended for the quality of teaching- learning offered by our school.
• On 22 July 2008 Eva Bruni, a secondary school teacher from Canada visited our school. The purpose of her visit was to create links between her school and our school through Pen-Pal project. She commented that her visit was very informative and she won’t forget the wonderful students she met during her visit. Eva donated school materials, pencils, fribees, tennis balls, stickers, and marker pen etc worth of USD 100.  She also promised to raise funds to support our school.   
• On 29 July 2008 Mr. Mrs. Jngeborg Jost, Child sponsors visited our school. After their visit they promised to donate money which will be used for the purchase of Music Instruments.
• On 20 November 2008, Ms. Heger Akrovt, Continental Programme Develop. Director, together with Mr. Croce Claudio, Regional Programmes Adivisor and Mr. Thomas Odera, Regional Education Coordinator visited our school. The purpose of her visit was to see the programmes implementation in the projects.
• On 29 October Mr. Thomas Odera, Regional Education Coordinator made an Educational visit to our school. During his visit, he made review of operations at our school and nursery school. He also tried to assess the possible education related Family Strengthening Programme support areas and how the project heads work together as a team for the benefit of the child.
  

General School Issues

• Concerning the maintenance of the school buildings, the inside walls of the rooms of four blocks were painted: Administration, library, staffroom, and Form III & IV. Maintenance and repair of the security lights, water pumps, water tap corks, furniture has also been done in the course of the year.

Support Required

Despite the greater achievement the school has shown, still there are problems facing the school. To mention a few:

• Absence of school canteen has become a hindrance to the provision of proper services to our clients. This issue has got a due consideration by the Board and Regional Office and we hope this problem will be solved soon.

• The school has no adequate qualified secondary school teachers. The current remuneration package could not attract new teachers neither retain the teachers we have. We hope this problem will be solved in 2009 with the revised scales, thanks to the Board of Trustees, the National Office and the Regional Office and the SOS Children International for the effort and commitment they have shown and short term measures they have taken so far to address this problem.

SOS Nursery School Zanibar

• The SOS Nursery School Zanzibar opened for the year 2008 on 8th January for staff and 14th January for children with the total of 180 children in six groups attending school in two sessions. General performance of the nursery school was excellent.
• Three parents meeting were held at the nursery school.
• Two educational trips were done by the whole nursery school in 1st and 2nd Term, The children spent a day with their teachers at the seaside at East Coast.
• Nursery School Graduation was celebrated at the SOS School.  The guest of honour was Mama Fatma Karume the ex-first Lady of the Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar (wife of the 1st President of Zanzibar – the mother of the current Zanzibar President ).
• Jolly phonics training for parents was conducted by teachers during holidays and follow up is made to see the progress of the children.
  

Staff Issues

• All educators went for observation at different private nursery schools here in Zanzibar during vacation so as to observe and see the standard of other nursery schools

SOS Primary and Secondary School Zanzibar

The combined SOS Primary and Secondary School opened in 1993. There are about 800 pupils in 28 classes.

The school was opened on 15th January 2008 for the new academic year with the total 906 children as shown in the table below:

The school which has a double stream Primary, Secondary to A-level, started with 46 teachers (out of which 34 were male and 12 were females) and 11 support staff. The school had a shortage  of 4 staff out of which only two could be recruited.
.   

Students’ Progress

Std VII  Entrance to Form I Exams
Out of 74 children 66 (89%) were promoted to Form I. 7 of the candidates were from the village out which 6 passed and one had to repeat std VII.

Form IV
F.IV students sat for their Trial exams in August 2008 and their Final National GCSE Exams in October 2008.  The results of their Trial (Mock) Exam were released in September 2008.  The  performance was:- Division I = 7, Division II = 7, Division III = 5, Division IV    = 31, Division 0 = 2

The two Div. 0 unfortunately went to the two children who had irregular attendance due to persistent illness.  The results of national Form IV Exams will be out in the First Quarter of 2009

Form VI
The second batch of Form VI which started in March 2006 appeared in trial Examination and the results are as follows:

The class had a total of 46, but 1 girl & 1 boy couldn’t do their Exams because they were sick. Comparatively girls performed better in the trial exams than boys.

The results of the National Form VI Exams were as follows:

Staff Update

At the beginning of the year we lost two Teachers – one absconded and the other one terminated the contract and joined arm forces.  At the end of the year the school again lost 2 more teachers - one went for further studies and other terminated the contract.  Two teachers were recruited to replace the vacant position.

Extra Curricular Activities

Various Inter-houses competition were conducted those include football matches, volleyball matches, netball matches, quiz, debate and general knowledge. Various football friendly matches were played with external teams for integration and socialisation.

SOS day celebrations were successfully held in the school premises jointly with SOS Nursery School, the SOS School and the SOS Children's Village.  Colorful graduations for Standard Seven and Form Four students were jointly celebrated.

Visits

On 8th May 2008, Ms. Usia from Dar es Salaam UN information Office accompanied by officials from Ministry of Education & Vocational Training Revolutionary Government of Zanzibar visited the school and had a discussion with for 4, 5 and 6 students on operational activities of UN; and the students’ UN club was established.

ZIFF officials accompanied by Deputy head of Mission from Embassy of France in Tanzania visited the school and had a discussion with F.I, F.II, F.III art students to   participate in the competition on “Cultural Diversity”.

Stephany Benintein B.H.K Msc OT student Researcher visited the school as a part of her Research, 20 students of primary school age of 6 – 15 years were involved in (photo voice method) Photography to express the opinions and views of individuals who are not usually given voice. It is a creative way to engage children and learn about their perceptions.

Parents’ Meetings

Three different meetings were held with parents:

• Parents’ meeting of form six students was held to discuss the performance  of the current form six students and came up with the idea of extra teaching after normal teaching hours.
• Parents’ meeting of form four students was held to discuss the performance of the current form four students.
• Meeting of parents of all student were done to discuss various issues for the betterment of school well being.

Study Visits

• Various study visits has been conducted for both section primary and secondary students. They visited different historical sites of Zanzibar for the purpose of consolidating knowledge on History subject.