HABARI: NEWS NOVEMBER 2012
Generally the school has been going on reasonably well after things settled with the strike of public school teachers early in September. The first class in Father Ntaiyia Jubilee School will be taking their final National examination for elementary school (8th graders) December 4, 5 and 6 and after the examination they will go home and wait for the results that are normally announce at the end of December. Their scores at this examination will determine their future. Those who will make it with high points may go to government schools or local secondary schools and others may have to go back home as I explained in the website blog last month.
I have been talking with the Head-teacher and other teachers and they think the candidates are ready for the exam. There are four teachers who are involved in teaching different examination subjects in class 8 and they report that they have covered with the student all that is required by syllabus for this examination. A few times I have asked the Head teacher to go to the classroom of 8th graders and with his cell phone on speaker they were able to hear me talk to them. The rest of the children will be going home for December break and will be reporting back on 7th of January 2013 when we shall be expecting to enroll new students.
SCHOOL STAFF SENTIMENTS: Our first graduating class that will take their public standardized examination in the first week of December and will end their studies at Father Ntaiyia Jubilee School. They joined the school while they were in class five (5th graders). The Head teacher who enrolled them in the school and who has been with them for the last four years says that there has been challenging changes in the life of these students. In his hands and that of other teaching staff and none teaching staff he this they had a lot to do to train the boys and girls to adjust to life in a boarding school away from their siblings, parents and other friends. The staff has also seen the class that started with 39 students decreasing to 20, nine girls and eleven boys. It was not easy for Mr. Nkoyo and other staff to see at times for some reasons, parents withdrawing children from the school. I invited Mr. Nkoyo to start the school after he had settled down for his retirement from teaching. It was not easy for him to go back to classroom work with students from different background and especially children who came in a boarding school for the first time. His experience of many years in teaching and being a Maasai who understands his community from whom most of the children came from Mr. Nkoyo was better placed to start and head the school.
With the other staff, Nkoyo says they have managed to bring the children up to be sociable, morally, physically fit and academically sound. The current class has 20 children, nine girls and eleven boys are about to tackle their final primary school examination. Mr. Nkoyo and other staff have seen them grow to teenagers and have been attached to these children and find it difficult to let them go after their examinations. The Head teacher says that these teens leave Father Ntaiyia Jubilee School being admirable, well behaved, disciplined and understanding that there are challenges ahead of them.
WATER PROJECT: While working on the project of harvesting rain water for use in the school it was recommended that the school makes use of the cistern that I had built in 2006 below one of the classroom for water storage. Experts say it is better to keep a lot of water cool in such a place rather than in plastic tanks exposed to sun. It has been calculated that the cistern below the classroom will hold about 90,000 liters of water and this is about 24,000 thousand gallons of water when full. Work on this cistern will be ready soon and rain water will be directed there from the school’s building roofs and more water will be reserved in a number of plastic tanks that will hold about 70,000 liters of water when full.
CONSTRUCTION: Pictures and news indicate that the construction of an administration building, library and a computer classroom is going on very well, the walls of the first floor are up and they are working on the slab for second floor. This time I am using a contracted constructor and this makes things much easier for me because this is a huge building. The constructor is responsible for material and workers.
The school contract with Mr. Gideon Nkoyo as Head teacher and employee of the school is coming to an end at the end of December. Originally I had a two year contract with him and at his request I renewed it for two more years. One of the three sisters who will come to work in the school will head the school.
Asante
Fr. Symon Ntaiyia