STORY ABOUT A TEACHER BECOMING A FIGHTER FOR EDUCATION
This article is based on an interview I conducted with another intern, Jesper Andersen, for a documentary we produced about the school attendance of children under 13 years old. There are many parts of the story the headteacher of the Tumaini nursery school told us that we didn’t use for our documentary. His story touched me; it’s worth being told. Here is the story of Gabriel Costantino Chaugali, the headteacher of Tumaini Nursery School in Madale, Tanzania.
The land on which the school was constructed hasn’t always been Mr. Chaugali’s. Initially, this land was used to graze goats. There is a big tree in the corner of the land; Mr Chaugali thought it would be a great place to start something. He asked the owner if he could have the land to teach children under that tree. He began like this, teaching only one student under the tree; her name was Agnes. This was ten years ago, in 2009.
At first, he didn’t want to become a teacher. He just wanted to help kids. “But I believe in God, and each night, someone told me I needed to do it for the kids. My family was living in Zanzibar, but something told me I needed to return to the mainland and help those children by teaching them, helping those who can’t afford school fees.”
Nowadays, the school is attended by 50 children. The number of students studying for free varies from year to year. Some years, it’s five kids; some years, it’s half the kids.
| “Education is like your eyes. You can’t do anything without your eyes. It’s the same for education; you can’t do anything without it.” |
The purpose of Mr Chaugali’s journey is to help the community. To help the kids to learn and have a good life afterwards. He believes that there is no economically developed country without a good education foundation. “People need to know things about their country and the world to develop their minds and be interested in what’s happening in the world. You can’t have professionals without education, so you can’t have industries. The nation’s kids must be educated to help the country grow when they are older. Otherwise, the poverty cycle will continue to turn.”
That’s why he’s trying to accommodate his parents as much as possible. They are only asked to pay for their children’s school uniforms and exercise books. The uniform costs about $10$, and the 12 exercise books for the year cost about $4$ in total. Some of the children don’t even have a uniform, but of course, they can still attend school.
The school fees from children whose parents pay are sometimes insufficient to cover operational costs, such as breakfast food and the assistant teacher’s salary. Mr Chaugali has extra jobs to cover these costs; he’s also teaching private children from families with higher incomes in his free time. This allows him to continue paying his assistant, so the school doesn’t have to close due to a lack of funds for one month.
| “The society, which doesn’t want children to get an education, isn’t educated. An educated person would never let this happen.” |
The teacher found that parents aren’t educated about the importance of school. Most of the time, they didn’t have the chance to attend school themselves. “When parents know they don’t have enough money to pay for school, they sometimes feel bad to put their kids in school for free. They feel like their kids are their responsibility, so they should be able to pay for everything; otherwise, they stay home with them. Sometimes, children are unable to attend because they have to take care of their siblings. They arrive late or leave early and sometimes miss several school days.”
“Education is important, money issues aren’t.”
Mr. Chaugali is working hard to dispel this belief. To help parents take school seriously and ensure they are preparing their kids for school every morning, he walks around the village to pick up the children. This way, parents don’t have a choice but to prepare their kids because they know the teacher will be there soon. He is also bringing them back home after school.
The teacher explained that a couple of years ago, he always saw two kids running around while walking to school. One day, he went to the mother and asked her why her kids weren’t in school yet. She told him she was poor; her father no longer communicated with her, so she was alone. Her only income was the local alcohol she was selling. The teacher took the dad’s contact information and called him himself. The father said that he would pay for the kid’s school fees. He only paid for one month. Mr. Chaugali took them under his wing. They stayed at the Tumaini Nursery School for about three years. They are now in standard four.
Even after the students quit and entered primary school, he continued to check on them. He visited their homes and ensured that they were doing their homework and were doing fine.
What would it be if you had one thing to say to your community?
I want to advise the community, or those with greater financial means, to support the most vulnerable. Education is crucial; poor children need education as much as their more affluent counterparts. I implore two things. First, I ask for financial support from the one with more money to help their neighbour’s kids attend school. Second, I ask for help from the community to educate the adults. Parents need to be educated about the importance of education for their children to break the poverty cycle and contribute to the growth of the community and the country. Education can break this cycle.
* The documentary is available on Art in Tanzania’s Facebook page.
