It is difficult to know where to begin to summarise the last 12 months and after just two weeks back in Australia our time in Tanzania is taking on the qualities of a dream.  I have to keep reminding myself of the reality of our little neighbours Baraka and Vivienne, of the beautiful view down to town and the lake from our house and of daily life in what is very much the Third World.


As part of the ‘leaving’ process I had to write a report on my activities over the time of my placement – what follows is part of what I wrote.

 In my 11 months here I have worked with members of the Education Office of Bukoba District Council to get an understanding of how education is delivered in Bukoba District, in Kagera Region and in the United Republic of Tanzania.  I have focussed particularly on the workings of the government primary schools in 5 wards of Bukoba District – Karabagaine, Katerero, Katoma, Maruku and Nyakato.  The District Education Officers with whom I  have worked most closely (and whom I have bombarded with questions!) are District Academic Officers (DAO) Messrs Joel Paul, Amos Nyamutera and Zuberi Kalugutu; Ward Education Coordinator (WEC) Mr Josiah Karwihula whom the District Education Office has assigned as liaison to VSO Volunteers, the WECs of four of the five wards in which VSO has worked most intensively and the District Inspectorate team.  The District Education Officer (DEO) Gregory Fabian was also very helpful but was often unavailable because his work often took him away from Bukoba.

The help of all these people and the scaffolding from the work of previous VSO volunteers (David & Janette Cowie 2007/8 and Sue & James Taylor 2008/10) meant I could get straight into ‘work’.  In my first month in Bukoba I was able to actively participate in discussions with the Head Teachers and classroom teachers of primary schools in the five wards.  These discussions ascertained the needs of schools and teachers with regards to Mathematics teaching.  The Heads and teachers trusted me because of the relationships already established with previous VSO volunteers.  The needs discussed were then sorted into areas where I could help (e.g. In-service training on content and methodology; use of practice exams to improve student learning) and areas where I couldn’t (e.g. Insufficient text books).

Over the 11 months visits to schools have usually involved a formal review process in which schools have had to account for improvements or otherwise in exam results, attendance, etc.  Records have been kept, both numerical data and descriptive/anecdotal evidence over 3 years and that data will be available to subsequent volunteers.  Lessons have been observed on most visits.  It is humbling that teachers put in more effort just because we are there to watch!

Together my colleagues and I planned workshops to deliver in-service training to mathematics teachers at all levels of the primary school years.  The training was to increase teacher knowledge and skills of content (What they teach) and methodology (How they teach) particularly in the subject of mathematics.  This involved preparing training documents and having some translated, having documents photocopied, organising logistics for travel and refreshments and finding money in the Bukoba District budget to pay for it all.  I tried, as much as possible, to use only materials that teachers would have available to them.  By working as a team we achieved all this and ran 12 successful workshops during the period September to November 2010.  Two of these days were a cooperative effort with World Vision Tanzania (WVTz) Katerero Area Development Program (ADP).  These workshops were attended by 175 mathematics teachers from 30 government primary schools and 2 private English medium primary schools.

The ‘success’ of the training was measured in several ways.

·       Evaluation forms were filled in by participants following each training day.  These evaluations were consistently positive.

·       Review visits to schools revealed that teachers had acted upon the advice given and ideas from the workshops were being used in the classroom.

·       Improving examination results could be attributed to improvements in teaching of mathematics although other variables are also influential.

The photocopying of training documents is one of the biggest costs in running training days and workshops.  To reduce these costs at future mathematics training all the documents used were gathered together to make a book “Teaching Aids & Resources for the Tanzanian Primary School Mathematics Syllabus” and 1000 copies were printed and distributed to schools throughout the Bukoba District initially and ultimately throughout the Kagera Region.  The cost of printing was met by family, friends and work colleagues in Australia. (Total cost for 1000 books – Tsh3,000,000/=)

Further training days were run in January as a cooperative effort with the WVTz Lweru ADP and this increased the number of schools with which VSO had contact to 34 as two schools from Bukoba Municipal were also included in the Lweru ADP.

The initial placement documentation talked about training and empowering teacher mentors from the five focus wards to enable them to train teachers in the other 19 wards of the District. Plans for this started in January 2011 when review visits to schools focussed on finding exemplary teachers using participatory methods who were willing to be Mentor Teachers and participate in training days in Wards adjacent to theirs. 

The review visits were also a time to present achievement certificates to schools.  I continued a program of appreciation of excellence and of improvement initiated by Jim & Sue Taylor by producing certificates for schools which had excellent results in the Primary School Leaving Examinations (Standard VII Exams) or had improved their results in English and mathematics.  These are highly valued by schools and displayed prominently.  At the request of the District education office certificates were produced to recognise excellence in Mock exams in May 2011 and District Office Education staff have had training in how to produce them using Word and Mail Merge.

Budgetary constraints meant that progress was slow on getting the Teacher Mentor teams activated.  In the meantime I worked with one of the DAOs on preparing ‘mocks’ or practice exams for Standard IV and Standard VII in the subject of Mathematics.  I had run workshops in the 5 wards on how to use practice exams to target future learning and review of learning.  This was only going to be helpful if pupils and teachers had exams and marked answer sheets returned to them.  I worked with the DAO on strategies that I hoped would make this possible.

There are two Teacher Training Colleges (TTCs) in Bukoba District: St Francis TTC and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Tanzania (ELCT) TTC.  I visited each of these to talk to the lecturer in mathematics and to leave copies of the “Teaching Aids & Resources” book.  At each TTC I was able to give a talk to the college students and demonstrate the low cost / no cost teaching aids I had made.  I also visited the Katoke TTC in Muleba District where VSO Rhona Brown is employed.  I had several discussions on training of mathematics teachers with the lecturer and tutors there and participated in a full day workshop on making teaching aids organised by Rhona.

Money was found in April to run a pilot scheme using a Teacher Mentor Team to deliver In-service Training to teachers from 10 more schools.  Four excellent teachers from Maruku ward were selected and together we prepared a two day training program to be run in the adjacent ward of Bujugo and then Kanyangereko.  Feedback from the Teacher Mentors and from participant teachers was positive.  The only suggested changes mentors and teachers would make were these: Teacher Mentors appreciated the signed and stamped certificates they were given and payment of their costs in attending but felt they deserved to be financially rewarded as well.  Teacher participants appreciated the refreshments of soda and biscuits but would rather chai and a more substantial meal!  Had these expenses been included into the budget proposal the training days would not have been approved!

My mother’s death in South Africa and our return to Australia for her Memorial Service meant I was absent for nearly a month but on my return we began the implementation of the Kagera Reading Programme.

The Kagera Reading Programme is an English language teaching resource devised by ex-VSO volunteer David Jackson. Each set of the program consists of 66 laminated cards – one with instructions for use, 60 with a story, vocabulary list and comprehension questions and 5 with answers – and costs Tsh76,000/=. We wanted to introduce it into Bukoba District schools.  Three English Teacher Mentors trained by previous VSO volunteers Sue and James Taylor, were given a set of the program to use for a few days and then they each gave a demonstration lesson watched by other English teachers in their ward.  Sets of the program were given to all government schools whose teachers attended.  The teachers each signed a contract to use the set weekly as part of the supplementary reading in Standard VI and VII.  Sets were distributed in Karabagaine, Maruku and Nyakato Wards initially and then Izimbya Ward. (27 sets valued at Tsh76,000/= each)  Plans have been made for a further 6 sets to be purchased and distributed in Kanyangereko Ward. (Total cost including travel money ~ Tsh2,600,000/=)

A second ‘private’ scheme Steve and I had embarked upon was to provide picture story books in KiSwahili suitable for primary aged children to supplement the libraries of the most disadvantaged schools.  We sought out authors and books given awards in Tanzania’s Children’s Book Project and bought 15 copies each of 38 picture story books.  These were delivered to schools in Katerero, Karabagaine and Nyakato wards during June. (Total cost Tsh1,600,000/=)

The ‘success’ of these final two projects was measured in smiles on faces of children and teachers!

Thank you to everyone who financially supported the work we did.  It will always be a sorrow for me that my mother did not get to see Bukoba District and the teachers and children whom she has helped.

I also want to say how much respect we have for all the wonderful volunteers, not just VSOs but many quite young Germans, Swedes and Danes working with various ELCT projects and others who came to Bukoba as volunteers and have stayed on to help the people, especially the orphaned and disabled children, with whom they have fallen in love.  It is a community of which we were proud to be a part.