To Friends of Father Ntaiyia Jubilee School and readers of Habari News, this month apart from editing to clarify and explain some terminologies this report is mainly written from reports by our teachers and compiled by our Deputy Head teacher Mr.Johnson Chepkowny who has been in charge of the school since May this year.
BACK TO SCHOOL AFTER A SHORT BREAK
Schools in Kenya resumed on Monday 29th August 2016 from a two week break and started the third and last academic trimester of our school year. Those readers who are familiar with the blog report will realize that there is change as it had been mentioned in the past on how the school trimesters were divided. Schools are expected to be in compliance with the new directive from Ministry of Educations as per new dates determining the length of each trimester (term) and school holidays. The Administration in Fr. Ntaiyia School makes sure we comply with such directive so that our school remains in the main stream for the good of our learners. As usual our teachers and other school staff were already in school as we welcomed 80 students who were accompanied by their parents on the first day. There was good spirit pointing out that we all prepared to begin the trimester’s activities. As expected, during the first few days after opening it was possible for our teachers to meet with the parents who kept bringing the students who were not able to report on the first day. Beginning this last trimester of the year has feelings of ending the school year, examinations and hope that next year students will be in other grades of class. Parents return home after bringing their children back to school promising us their prayers and wishing us well.
Keeping to our tradition here at Father Ntaiyia School, we give our students their first internal examination, which we usually referred to as ` Tune-Up` (or wake up we are back to school) soon after they are back from home. It is aimed at bringing our learners back to books and school work after their holidays. The results of the examinations are then analyzed and in many cases help us to identify the areas that may need attention before the teachers gets deep in trimester’s work.
OUR EFFORTS AND HOPE
Before we go home for holidays we end the term with standardized examinations that our students and those of other schools in our area take. We have 50 schools involved and in each school each grade (class) takes the same examination. These examinations are given extraordinary attention by both teachers, students and education officer as they are used to gauge the development of performance not only by the students but also the teachers and educational managers. Schools and individual students are usually ranked and official reports are prepared by the local education officers.
Since the results of these examinations are released at the beginning of the trimester, each party expects challenges that require energy and determination for better results in academics and other school activities. Father Ntaiyia always tells us that there must be room for improvement always in life.
Within the first week of our returning from holidays, as trimester’s examination results were released, we are proud to say that Father Ntaiyia Jubilee School, once again posted a very remarkable performance in all the grades. All grades were ranked among the top three (3) out of 50 schools and a good number of students featured in overall top ten positions in all subjects. Our 8th graders, who are the graduating class this year, were in position 3 out of 59 schools and emerged the best school in Science, 2nd in English and 3rd in Mathematics. This good performance is attributed to the commitment by teachers, students and all those involved in their learning.
The education officers have commended Father Ntaiyia Jubilee School for determinations to provide quality education for our learners. The parents, too, are pleased with these reports of their children. It is hoped that our students will continue to do well and give us hope for their further education and a bright future.
PROBABLE CHANGES IN KENYA EDUCATION SYSTEM
The current education system in Kenya is being reviewed by National Education Ministry in consultations with various educationists, government agencies, teachers and parents’ associations. Last August the head teachers’ conference, which was held in Mombasa, one of the Kenya’s cities, provided a platform for the government to receive the views of the stakeholders on what should be incorporated into the curriculum. The proposed curriculum which is expected to be effected in the near future, will do away with some “subjects’’ (courses) being taught now that do not seem to be useful in preparing the learners in Kenya for their future. It is hoped that the content of proposed curriculum will address the perennial challenges facing the Kenya’s education sector and that the learners will have better foundation to shape their future as expected of productive citizens.
The government has also announced plans to waive national examination registration fees beginning January 2017 for all Kenyan children, both in public and private schools. These fees are always paid by all parents even those of public schools where education is free. The candidates have to meet these fees on the year of their public examination and when the deadline is not met some students are sent home and may miss learning for a while before they pay these fees. At times it may take long for some parents to get the money. In Father Ntaiyia Jubilee School, however, Father Symon instructed that we pay for the fees for every child who is late when the time comes and wait for when the parents will get the money.
Next year is an election year in Kenya and we are used to promises that we believe once they are implemented and are in place.
EDUCATIONAL TRIP TO NAIROBI
It has become our tradition here at Father Ntaiyia School to plan for an educational trip every other year for some of our students. The expenses of such a tour are met by parents of the students who go. After the teaching staff has deliberated on the tour and where to go and made estimates of the cost per students, each student takes a letter home during the holidays before the trip. The parents who are willing and can afford will pay for their child. Priority is always given to graduating for final class. Towards the end of the last trimester, we planned to take our students for an educational trip to Nairobi, the Kenya’s Capital. The objective of this trip was to expose learners to some places and situations they may have heard of or read about while learning. It is like an opportunity for supplementary learning resources given that some of them may never have opportunity to go to these places.
This year we began the preparation after we officially made a request to our proprietor, Fr. Symon Ntaiyia, who whole heartedly accepted and took a step to guide us on when and how to go about it. The message was communicated to the parents who also responded positively by meeting the cost of the trip. By the end of the second week of the term, we had about 50 students in the booking list.
This necessitated official notification of our local education officers as required by the ministry’s guidelines on educational trips. These include transport and safety arrangements for the learners. A pre-visit was then made to the places we wanted to visit, The Animal Orphanage and the National Assembly. This is usually done to familiarize us with the places and authorities in charge in order to make arrangements for the visit.
There was a lot of excitement among the pupils when the journey began in the morning of Friday 23rd September 2016. The bus carrying the 59 learners and 3 teachers left the school compound at 6am. Though they were somehow inconvenienced by morning traffic jam as they entered the City of Nairobi, they managed to arrive on time. They then visited the airport, national park and the national assembly. The report from the teachers who accompanied the students shows that the students stole the show in the National Assembly by the way they responded to the questions they were asked by the clerks who welcomed them to the public galleries. The administration was in constant communication with who were on the trip while Father Symon called a few times from the US asking that all is well with the children and the teachers who were on the trip. Those who remained in the School went on with usual daily activities but as the day was spent we were eager to receive the others back. The trip was very well planned and supervised making it very successful and a learning trip for all.
I wish to congratulate our staff and our parents for making it possible. To our students, well done for your cooperation and good behavior.
DEVELOPMENT: (Report by Fr. Symon) As I mentioned in my last blog July / August, development in the school continued as per Friends of Fr. Ntaiyia Jubilee School BOD plans on our ongoing little projects in the School. During the school holidays however, the mason and our maintenance team had to do little repairs that were necessary in various buildings that needed to be done when the children are away. During each school break the buildings, the beds, and the furniture that children use are inspected. Usually after such inspection things that may need repair are taken care of. Our workers have to suspend any other ongoing work and pay attention to such repairs before the children return. There may come a need to repair something immediately and there are those that may wait until the children are on holidays.
Meanwhile the boys’ latrine is almost complete; this had to take a little longer because there is a urinal to be constructed along with it. The construction of the stone perimeter wall is in good progress in spite of being put on and off to give way for other works in the school. The total length of the perimeter stone wall under construction is 1910 feet, we have already constructed 1347 feet and is still remaining 563 feet. We have also started making desks for each individual teacher in their new staff room. They moved in their new staff room about six months ago and are still using some office desks and ordinary tables.
I will be visiting Kenya and hope to see to completion of the ongoing projects especially installing more plastic water tanks for harvest rain water from the Administration /Library building. We thank our generous donors, a priest and a friend of his from Rochester for this water project. This will increase clean drinking water for the students and staff.
I am in new discussion with another congregation of Sisters who have visited my school and are interested in working there. I will have a talk with the Bishop of the area on this when I am in Kenya.
Thank you to all who made it possible and those who still keep us going.
“I am because we are” = African proverb
Fr. Symon Ntaiyia