The kindergarten at Korongoni Primary School in Moshi has seen significant improvements over the last year. I interviewed the primary kindergarten teacher, Clara, at the beginning of August 2014.
Clara is a qualified primary school teacher for children in standards three to seven, as well as for those with special needs. However, due to the shortage of teachers at Korongoni Primary School, she was asked to take over the kindergarten teaching in 2010.
The first years were tough. Clara was the only teacher for two groups of more than 30 children aged four to six years. She had almost no teaching materials, only a piece of chalk and one book for each subject. The desks were too big for the children, and there were numerous holes in the classroom floor.
Clara was kept very busy throughout the whole day. She was teaching, preparing and serving porridge and washing the dishes before the next group of children arrived. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much time between the two groups, which meant no break for the teacher. The sizes of the classes were too big for one teacher to handle, and Clara felt that she had to play too many different roles. In addition to her teacher’s role, she sometimes acted like a police officer and sometimes like a grandmother. Repeatedly, she felt overwhelmed during and after work and experienced headaches. At the time, she was not looking forward to her work days.
In 2013, Marissa, a volunteer with Art in Tanzania, visited the kindergarten. Marissa and Clara became good friends, and Clara started sharing her dreams with Marissa about how to improve the kindergarten. Together, they created a plan, and Clara and representatives from Art in Tanzania researched prices for the budget. Back in the UK, Marissa, with the help of GAGA-UK, raised funds which made all of the improvements possible. In July 2013, Korongoni Primary was able to open the first Montessori government kindergarten in Tanzania. Now that the building has been renovated, proper desks, chairs, and teaching materials have been purchased, and another teacher, Mary, has been hired.
Clara is now pleased and says that her dream has come true. Nowadays, she likes going to work and is very happy that Mary is there to help. Clara also says that the teachers from standard 1 are very pleased with the children coming from her kindergarten, as they already know the basics of reading, writing and counting. The reputation of the kindergarten has spread, and many parents want their kids to attend there. Unfortunately, it is not possible to accommodate everyone, as the group sizes would become too large. Currently, the morning class has 32 children, and the afternoon class has 35.
Clara says that this kind of improvement is not too expensive and that others could do it too. Her wish for the future is that more people would understand the importance of educating children at a very young age. Clara would especially want to continue emphasising the teaching of the basics (reading, writing and counting) after kindergarten in classes 1 and 2.
Volunteers are needed to teach English in both the kindergarten and primary classes in Korongoni. Clara suggests that the volunteers could use different methods (games and play) in teaching, and she is convinced that the kids will benefit from the volunteers’ teaching.
Text by Hanna-Mari Pulli
