Outreach Program

The outreach program consists of several initiatives that Nuru International will offer to the public schools free of charge at times determined by the head teacher and the school management committee. Materials needed for the programs will be provided by Nuru and will be funded 100% through revenue generating activities.

Outreach initiatives include: 

• Reading hour 
  • Nuru Field Managers and Field Officers will coordinate with public schools that wish to take advantage of Nuru’s programs to find times that are not disruptive to the school timetable or the delivery of curriculum. 
  • During these times, Nuru Field Managers will offer reading hour to classes ECDE through Standard 5. Reading hour is a time when Nuru staff will gather children, one class at a time, and read the students age appropriate storybooks to develop listening comprehension, vocabulary, English fluency and a love for reading. Nuru will arrange repeat visits so all students have access to this program twice monthly.
  • Nuru Field Managers will run a creative writing workshop following the story to encourage students to articulate what they have read, practice new vocabulary and develop confidence in their writing ability.

• Educational murals 
  • Nuru will work with public schools to paint educational murals that can serve as learning and teaching aids. These murals will highlight educational topics that will supplement the school’s lessons. Nuru will bring themes that relate to the curriculum and then help pupils create images and paint them around the school. This will engage the students, create pride in their schools, provide teaching aids and create an environment of continuous learning at the schools. 

• Mobile library 
  • Nuru will circulate around public schools with a small portable library. Students will be allowed to borrow books to read over the course of a time period that has been arranged in advance with the Head Teacher. 

• Writing workshops 
  • Nuru Field Managers will offer writing workshops to students in Standard 1 – 8. These workshops will focus on creative writing skills, writing confidence, vocabulary building, self expression and English fluency.  Students will write and illustrate their own stories with the support and encouragement of Nuru staff. 

• Student clubs
  • Nuru will work with the local public schools to facilitate student clubs. Because the schools in our area are under-resourced, many lack the capacity to organize, lead and implement student clubs. Nuru sees the value in these clubs as a method of developing leadership, independent thinking and self-confidence. For these reasons, Nuru will help schools set up and run student clubs. 

Learning Center

Nuru has constructed a building in Keborui that will serve as a learning resource center for school children, teachers and out of school youth throughout Isibania Division. Nuru’s goal is to have one learning center for every division that is partnering with Nuru. The center will be staffed by Nuru Field Managers and Field Officers who will facilitate the learning workshops and provide one on one attention to the children. The center will be available to teachers for field trips and will include the following resources. 

Learning center is a creative space that includes: 

• A teacher resource library with books, maps and teaching aids for teachers to check out for use in their classrooms as well as books they have requested to facilitate their own continued learning. 
• A small library corner for children designed to develop interest in reading, provide access to books and develop reading skills.
• Facilitated writing workshops like those provided through the outreach program.
• One on one or one on group tutoring will be offered. P1 certified teachers will manage the tutoring program and will especially focus on children who are falling behind or are identified as vulnerable by the teachers or parents. 
• Creative arts projects will be offered to stimulate creativity and provide inspiration for writing workshops and other activities. 

This past week, we ran a practical test of our outreach programs in the local schools. The team split into teams of two and arranged time with the local public schools to test reading hour, the most straightforward of the outreach initiatives. The program is simple – entailing the Education team splitting a class, reading a story book, discussing the book and then conducting a writing workshop related to the story. So far, we have tested the program at four local public schools. 

During all four tests, the students were extremely engaged and we found teachers to be highly supportive.   I’d like to share some pictures from our day at Keborui Primary that show students slowly moving closer and closer to Sabora as he read to them about Anansi the spider. After finishing the story, the students were encouraged to draw characters or scenes from the book. They then wrote the first chapter of their own stories. We will wait until we have formal approval from the Ministry of Education to begin implementing these programs, but in the meantime we will continue to refine our plans based on the feedback we have received and our experiences in the classrooms.  

One of the biggest challenges I have faced while working with my team to develop our education model is our isolation from innovation. We are in a remote place, working where there are no other NGOs and the only education approaches in place are private and public schools. I know that this is not a challenge unique to me and my team, but one that many people working in the remote areas of developing countries face. I have been thinking about the need for a collaborative online space where we can share best practices, resources and success stories.  As the education team prepares to launch our outreach program in May, I would like to explore the possibility of creating a dynamic place for all of us to share our ideas, lessons learned, and high impact project ideas. I want to propose the idea and hear what you think – would you participate? What type of online space would inspire you? Would you frequent a site that contained lesson plans, ideas, activities coupled with a discussion thread where you could solicit and receive feedback?

The education team is currently in the process of developing a manual for the outreach program. This manual will contain activities, exercises and inspiration for the various outreach initiatives that include writing workshops, reading hours, educational murals and student clubs. I see this as the perfect opportunity to set the stage for ongoing collaboration. I know that a lot of you have extensive experience in primary education and would like to leverage your expertise toward the creation of our program manual. More than that though, I think it would benefit all of us to have a resource like this – one that you can trust and draw from whenever the need arises. 

I propose we start contributing materials and resources around the following areas – writing workshops, educational murals and student clubs. To start, please feel free to send me links or documents that you are willing to share and think would be valuable to other readers? I will work with the Nuru team to present these resources in a user-friendly way. Let us try to not only provide the resource, but also try to answer questions like these. How do you effectively lead this activity? What impact have you seen on literacy levels as a result of this initiative or activity? What types of teaching aids did you use and find effective?

I hope you are excited about the potential of a resource like this and can help me build one. Here’s hoping that I am overwhelmed with responses and we can start a community of contributors all passionate about collaborating for good.

The New Year finds the education team invigorated and preparing to launch the outreach program. Once the program’s implementation schedule is complete, our first priority is to communicate our goals and plans to the community and relevant Ministry, government and school officials. Our intention is to communicate in a way that engages these parties and solicits feedback. This is more challenging than it may seem. What we are planning to implement is something new and unique in our district and, as far as we know, in Kenya. 

The main communication challenge we face is that this community has only been exposed to the Kenyan exam-centric system. Most are not aware of alternative approaches or their efficacy – their perspectives are limited. Many are certificate dependent in their estimation of academic progress, merit and success. For many illiterate parents, certificates serve as tangible proof of learning and achievement. We need to explain the value of an alternative approach to a community that has no reference point for that approach and has never seen it in action. 

The same holds true for many of the government and school officials in our area. They are isolated from innovations in the education sector and not well versed in alternative learning techniques. Many are strident believers in teaching to the exams. They push NGOs toward infrastructure development and scholarship programs. We have to not only resist that pressure, but prove the validity of our approach, one that is new and unfamiliar here. They are skeptical and yet we need their approval to work with the schools. 

We need to gain trust and establish credibility. To do that, we are planning a set of high impact projects that we can launch immediately at the offset of the outreach program. These programs are intended to provide parents, teachers, school administrators and officials with an immediate and tangible example of our value and impact. These are programs that will engage the school community in Nuru’s program and create a lasting and deeper demand. Once that demand has been established, we will roll out the rest of the outreach programs while working to build and prepare the learning center for drop-in services. 

The outreach programs will target the Early Childhood Development classes up to Standard 8 and include things like reading hours, creating educational murals with the students to serve as learning and teaching aids, and facilitated creative writing workshops. We are working to find ways to maximize idle times in schools. We are targeting days of the week that have low teacher attendance and times of the day that tend to be devoted only to play.  

The programs are intended to not only impact child literacy, but also to engage parents and teachers. We believe the programs will demonstrate the power of engaging students in creative, participatory learning while improving literacy rates and because of these successes, will spark a gradual change in the ways parents and teachers work to inspire and facilitate learning. This gradual change coupled with the programs we institute through the learning center should help to address some of the challenges discussed in previous blogs.

Ten work days remain before the U.S. team heads out for winter break. My usual gleeful countdown to a vacation has not set in - instead I am willing the days to be longer so my team can make a final push to refine and test our model before the holiday break.   

This past week, the team completed the second and final round of site visits. This time we went armed with a rough draft of our model in hand, requesting feedback as we made our rounds. Francis and Munsi went to Kisumu for a flurry of meetings with organizations that work with marginalized children – especially homeless youth – to improve their access to education, shelter, and health services. They also spent a day attending a KenChicks training on poultry farming, which is one of income generating contenders. Vicky and Sabora went to Kilgoris to visit the Kilgoris Project, a program that runs a few schools and has started tea and maize farms to generate revenue and increase their self-sustainability. They also researched a health education outreach program run by Compassion International to see how it is reaching children in the area and measure the efficacy. Moses and I went to Nairobi for meetings with literacy experts and to visit the Kenya Bureau of Statistics and the Kenya National Library Services. 

These meetings may seem slightly random in light of the fact that the model we are building is a learning resource center that operates drop-in and outreach programs. None of the people or organizations we visited are doing what we hope to do. We went to study components of their work and to see what is and is not effective about their approaches. Many of these organizations excel at their work but are having a more limited impact than what we are hoping to achieve. 

It has become clear through these meetings that there is no other organization in our district, and possibly Kenya, operating a drop-in/outreach program like the one we are designing. Very little non-formal education exists here so it is difficult to find experts well versed in alternative education tactics or impact. It is also difficult to find working proof of the model.

I would like to rally your support and ask you to send me resources or contacts you may have that are well versed in child literacy – particularly those who have experience implementing programs to address literacy issues with marginalized children and/or in a developing country. I would like to contact them and ask for their feedback and insight on our plans and hear about the impact of their work firsthand. I would also like to hear their innovative thoughts on how we can tackle some of the following challenges we have identified that might act as obstacles to smooth implementation or to deep impact in our community.

Some of the challenges we anticipate and want to eliminate include:

• As children learn to think independently at a learning center, they may question or oppose their teachers in class and create hostility between teachers and Nuru. Will an outreach program at schools be enough to bridge this gap in the students’ learning experiences?
• The children will have freedom at the learning center but then they will return to the same broken system that suppresses free, creative thinking. How do we prove the value of critical and creative thinking so that it is embraced within a strictly exam-based learning system? 
• We will be pushed toward standard, conventional approaches by the Ministry. We cannot show them proof of our model working here yet because it is unique. We need a strong partnership with them in order to be effective in the education space, yet there is a lack of awareness about alternative education, its impact and the ways in which it can supplement existing systems.
• Children may be motivated and inspired through our programs and then frustrated when they return to schools that are focused on standardized testing, are overcrowded and under-staffed. Will that hope and motivation sour when the daily learning environment is not fueling the growth.
• We will be overwhelmed with interest. Children will come in large numbers. How do we scale quickly enough to accommodate them?
• We will have to work to maintain good relationships between the learning center and the schools since they may feel overshadowed or inadequate as our programs gain traction and popularity. 
• Parents will ask what they, and their kids, are getting out of the experience and how it links to formal education and performance on standardized tests. How do we prove immediate impact and then how do we structure our longer term impact measurement?
• We need to engage parents in a meaningful way and have them invest in the formation of this program. This is difficult when they are unaware of alternative education and their perspective is limited to public, private and sponsored schools. How can we best include them, educate them and engage them?
• Children may not have an avenue for continued growth and development outside our programs. How do we change or address this?

I welcome any thoughts, ideas or connections you may have that will help us refine our model and eliminate these questions and challenges. In the meantime, the education team will continue to forge ahead and develop a more detailed plan of attack, which I will share with you in the coming update. 

Since the site visits, the team has been hard at work sharing, digesting and analyzing what they learned during their travels. They have worked to refine their individual visions for the model. Yesterday, the team shared their latest iterations of those models. The meeting marked a triumph for our team - their models had all organically come perfectly into sync. The team had moved from two distinct camps into one and they had compelling explanations for the shifts. The team had aligned around the concept of a learning resource center that acts as drop-in resource center and a base for outreach programs.  

Today we began to craft a cohesive team vision of this learning center by fusing our six personal drafts. Every member of the team grabbed a piece of chalk and chipped in. They posed suggestions, analyzed the viability of programs, questioned rationale, connected ideas and offered suggestions when a teammate was stuck. We will continue to build on our new model, reaching out to experts in the field to refine our evolving vision.  Every team member is fully engaged and pouring themselves into this process of discovery, iteration and design. 

In the videos, Vicky and Munsi share our process and provide a glimpse of the team’s first crack at a cohesive model. 

Over the course of the past 3 days, the team has been divided between Kisumu, Nairobi and Kuria on a hunt for best practices. This hunt is a culmination of the past few weeks, which have been focused on increasing the team’s exposure to innovative work, training them on project planning techniques, and working to extract ideas from their brains and show them how to draft a model.  

Last week, I had the team attempt to articulate all the thoughts and ideas swirling around in their heads in the form of a model. They have been learning about non-traditional and alternative education in the past few weeks and I wanted to see how they were applying that information to our situation. I asked them all to create a draft of the education model. I will have them iterate on that model over the coming weeks so they can see how dynamic this research and development phase is and can track the evolution of their own thoughts. We will also create one cohesive team draft to ensure that everyone is intimately involved in shaping our new direction. 

The team put a lot of thought into their drafts and I found that they were really split into two camps. Vicky and Moses had outlined visions for alternative education interventions – like a learning center that offers drop-in programs and school outreach – while Munsi and Sabora had gone with a model school approach.  Francis bridged the gap, drafting a plan for an outreach program that would be sustained through revenues generated by a private school. 

The exercise proved that I need to work to bring the team together – to focus on one shared vision. It also illustrated the different ways each team member thinks and connects information.  It highlighted areas that are unclear or unknown – areas that require research or discussion. The team learned that by articulating their thoughts, they were required to organize their ideas in a synthesized way; they were required to move from a nebulous idea to something more organized and coherent. The process required them to test the feasibility of their reasoning and answer practical questions. They voiced questions like - How would this idea be implemented? How would it be managed? What challenges might we face? What role would I play in that program or model? 

In an attempt to answer some of these questions, we embarked on site visits and research Monday through Wednesday of this week. We split into 3 groups with Francis and Munsi going to Nairobi, me and Moses going to Kisumu and Vicky and Sabora canvassing the Kuria area. We had a long list of NGOs and experts to visit and have just returned to Isibania to share what we learned during our travels. I’ll update you on our findings next week. 

In the hills of Ikerege, a man has built a windmill out of steel drums cut in half and soldered to a post. This windmill powers his home. Our neighbor rewired his radio and created an amplifier using plastic scraps, dirt, fire and some wire. In Kioma Kebe, I visited a home that has a beautifully architected cantilevered ceiling beam system. 

Innovation and creativity thrive here in Kuria. There is evidence everywhere - in the homes, in the jua kali stalls along the streets, in the markets, in the intricacy of children’s toys and women’s baskets. So why does innovation stop at the doorways of the schools? 

As the education team dives into the research and development phase of the new model, I have witnessed a hesitancy to innovate. They are brilliant – each of them – so why do they shy away when asked to create a new approach to an embedded concept or structure like education? They do not lack the gall. They have scars to prove their fierceness and tenacity. 

I think innovation draws from an ability to capture your surroundings, experiences and perspectives and weave them into new shapes and textures. To take that new shape and begin to give it focus and clarity. To create a plan to realize a vision. It’s a process that requires reckless abandon coupled with patience, independent thought and a willingness to invite ideas, communicate and take accountability for actions, decisions and failures. 

In a place where brilliance is a norm and innovation is a household standard, what prevents that innovation from crossing the chasm between the practical and the structural? If it were applied to huge, seemingly immovable and systemic issues like poverty, illiteracy and hunger, this ferocious innovation and creativity could provide the propulsion to unmoor communities and unleash alternative education systems, economic opportunities that empower the poor, intercommunity collaboration that uplifts rather than burdens… 

How do I help my team cross the chasm from practical innovation to systemic innovation? How do we focus that innovation on this challenge – creating a new system, a new model that develops creativity and critical thinking from early childhood and combats illiteracy? 

To do it, I think I need to remove fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear of failure. Fear of criticism. Without that fear, will the floodgates open to unleash a torrent of inspiration? Then to spur and focus that inspiration, do I provide tools and resources that expand the team’s perspective and give them references to draw from or build on? 

I know that I could drive the process. It would be easier for everyone and faster. I also know that if I do, it will stunt my team’s development and ownership of our end product. We need to act in concert because together we can create a more sustainable, relevant and inspired model. 

Saul Alinsky, in Rules for Radicals, drives home this point by saying “We learn, when we respect the dignity of the people, that they cannot be denied the elementary right to participate fully in the solutions to their own problems. Self-respect arises only out of people who play an active role in solving their own crises and who are not helpless, passive, puppet-like recipients of private or public services. To give people help, while denying them a significant part in the action, contributes nothing to the development of the individual. In the deepest sense it is not giving but taking -- taking their dignity. Denial of the opportunity to participate is the denial of human dignity and democracy. It will not work.”

If we move together, every member of the team will have explored our model, tested it, questioned it, exposed possible flaws, and sought feedback from the community. Through this process of innovation and discovery, they will take ownership and they will understand exactly how and why the approach will improve literacy among their people. They will have the knowledge to support the model and they will have the tools to implement. They will have a plan and will be prepared to scale. 

As I reach the midpoint of my time in Kuria I feel a growing impatience to make progress. My expectation has never been to solve the problems of the community in my time here. My desire, my plan, has always been to help build the local team into a powerful, inquisitive, effective force for change in Kuria. The challenge now is how best to push their learning edge into the unknown, how to build competency not in creativity--they have that in abundance--but in creativity applied to these structural problems. I am posing these questions to myself and to the team in search of the answers.

I have always believed in the intense power of creative thought and expression.  I believe creativity is an essential component of intellect and one that should be stimulated and nurtured. 

Kids possess raw creative genius and curiosity. They are natural inventors, constantly repurposing blankets into forts, trashed containers into airplanes, old cardboard boxes into rocket ships. Imagination drives them and consumes their days. Today I saw a teacher mount a fight against that raw creative talent. 

I was at Nyangite Primary School where they have 605 students and 5 teachers. This little girl was drawing a picture of her home and approached me to show off her work. I told her she had drawn a beautiful home and asked what the other images in the picture were. She whispered, “ndege,” which means birds. At that moment, the teacher came up and told her they were “scribbles” and that she is “just a baby scribbling”. I almost melted in horror. The girl was ashamed and retreated to hide her paper.  

I looked around the classroom and realized the older kids had taken a formulaic approach to drawing birds. The birds they drew were identical. The trees were identical. In that overcrowded classroom, I was witnessing the death of creativity. 

 This upsets me for many reasons. I believe creative expression fuels intellectual development and maturity. Imagination, curiosity and self expression are powerful reasoning tools. These components lay the foundation for independent thought. They lead to creative and critical thinking which, in turn, lead to problem solving, invention, discovery, leadership and bravery in the face of conformity. Creativity induces generative thoughts and actions. Creativity leads to innovation. 

And here I was, watching these incredible innate gifts being intentionally stripped out of the learning environment in favor of a regimented, rote memory approach to learning. Starting with the baby class, the children were conforming, shedding their willingness to take risks and abandoning spontaneous inspiration. When I visited the Standard 7 class, the students were using rulers to draw – so conscious of precision and what is “right” that they were uncomfortable with the thought of freestyle drawing.  

In adulthood, creative starvation and discouragement can easily translate into regimented action, closed thinking, conformity, and a tendency to blindly adhere to what is known. These qualities make it very difficult to lift oneself out of poverty. 

The community here speaks of their children as the future. They place their hope and destinies in the hands of their children with the hope they will grow into their roles as future leaders of Kuria. We need these children to be equipped with skills that will enable them to have big ideas, the self-confidence to act boldly and the creativity to spur radical positive change. Every one of these kids has the capacity and the drive required to be a contributing member of the community. Let us work to ensure the very skills needed to empower communities out of poverty are not taught out of them.  

Get the update from Nuru's Education Staff on the Taragwiti School sponsorship and their current plans to evaluate new solutions.

Today was supposed to be our big meeting to resolve the Taragwiti sponsorship situation. The DEO had called the meeting and had invited the local chiefs, parents, Salvation Army representatives, Nuru representatives, school staff and all other interested parties.  This situation is complex.

Our education team is treading softly. We don’t want to incite the parents against the Ministry or Salvation Army. We don’t want to take on a sponsorship without fully understanding the roles, rights and responsibilities associated with that position. We do, however, want to get to work on implementing programs that will have an impact on the quality of education. 

In an effort to clarify the role of sponsors and untangle some of the mixed messages we have received from the DEO, the education team drafted a letter that summarizes what he has told us throughout this process and presents our criteria for accepting a sponsorship. Moses and I took the letter to Kehancha on Tuesday in an effort to meet with the DEO, gain clarity and request that he sign the letter to verify our joint understanding.  Meanwhile Francis, Vicky, Munsi and Omondi led a meeting with the parents of Taragwiti to explain our stance on the sponsorship issue and quell any rumors that were circulating. 

The following criteria were presented to the parents and the DEO as our conditions for sponsoring Taragwiti or any other school. 

• Nuru would have control over academic management and curriculum implementation at the sponsor school
• Nuru would control the finances of the school including revenue generated, proceeds from harambees and the management of government grants
• Nuru would not be required to prioritize infrastructure development
• Nuru will be responsible for maintaining school records and managing facilities and enrollment
• Nuru would have control over the staffing of the school in collaboration with the Ministry. Nuru would advise the Ministry in the selection, transfer and retention of teachers and head teachers. 
• Nuru would maintain 3 spots on the school committee 
• Nuru should have the ability to start and prioritize interventions or programmatic developments without the interference of the Ministry.

The DEO has rescheduled the meeting for September 15. Before the next meeting, we hope to meet with the DEO to discuss our criteria and hear his perspective. In the meantime, the education team will continue to research the referenced changes to the Education Act. Because of the recent cholera outbreak in our area, they will also venture into the local schools to teach students about the disease and how to prevent and treat it.  As we push through this tough phase with the Taragwiti sponsorship, we will continue to seek ways to provide a positive and tangible benefit to the community we’re here to serve.

Last week, Francis and I met with the District Education Officer (DEO) to discuss the Ministry of Education’s decision regarding Nuru’s desire to sponsor Taragwiti Primary School. The DEO told us that they have “no problem” with us sponsoring the school. However, before any formal decision is made regarding our sponsorship, the DEO wants to meet with the Salvation Army, Taragwiti parents, local chiefs, Nuru, and any other interested parties to discuss the transfer of sponsorship from the Salvation Army to Nuru. We received word this week that the Salvation Army representatives in Kakamega who hold the highest decision-making power said that they would absolutely not consider relinquishing sponsorship. The DEO also told us that the Education Act is undergoing revisions as a result of the new constitution. He said the revisions are mainly targeted at reducing, controlling and limiting the role of the sponsor. We are now in the process of clarifying what exactly that means.

As a result of these developments, we need to revisit the sponsorship model and determine our strategic direction. We will be assessing the risks associated with this approach and trying to gather more information about these proposed revisions to the Education Act to inform our path forward. Our main challenges right now are the unknowns related to the Education Act, the Taragwiti parents who are extremely agitated about the Salvation’s Army’s unwillingness to surrender their sponsorship, the Salvation Army’s position and lack of transparency regarding their decisions, and the DEO’s strong advocacy for our involvement in Taragwiti that is diverging from our vision for the sponsorship. These elements represent considerable challenges for the sponsorship program as we had envisioned it. Though it derails us momentarily from our forward momentum, it is an important test of the strength and practicability of the sponsorship approach.

Here is what Francis and Victoria had to say regarding the recent developments. We will be able to provide a clearer assessment of the situation after our meeting on September 1st. 

Yesterday I went to Bhavini’s, the local grocer, to pick up a few things. While I was waiting to pay, I watched as the man in front of me laid all the school supplies his daughter needed for the coming term on the counter. He was asking Patel, the proprietor, how much each item cost. There were 2 notebooks at 35 shillings a piece, 2 pencils at 10 shillings a piece, 3 pens at 10 shillings a piece and one eraser at 5 shillings. The man was speaking gently to his daughter asking if every item was absolutely necessary. He was clearly agonizing over the cost. 

I stood there moved with respect for the man and the perseverance he and his daughter exhibited. Not only was the man spending his precious money to educate his child, he was educating a girl old enough to be married off and he was doing it with humility and determination. The equivalent of $2.00 was standing in the way of this girl’s education and future. Every day I see parents and students throughout this community working intently to gain access to education. 

As I watched the man, I felt myself losing patience. Why is it that our education team has waited for over a month for a decision from the Ministry of Education regarding our sponsorship of Taragwiti, despite frequent calls and a few visits? Why is it that the academic standards of one of the lowest performing schools in the whole district does not seem to be one of their top priorities? The students demonstrated their commitment to education – marching to the District Education Officer’s office (a 45 minute drive away) to protest the teaching quality at their school. The parents mounted a response to the situation, becoming vocal and requesting the head teacher be ousted and that Nuru work with them to improve academic standards.  The local chiefs and elders have voiced their concern and advocated for change.  The community has mobilized around this situation. So why is it that the situation festers? 

Despite that frustration, bulldozing toward a solution or change is not an effective approach. We cannot alienate those who are responsible for the district’s education system.  However, I felt my patience slipping. To me, there is serious urgency to this situation. That girl only has one year of primary school left and they need to prepare her to make informed decisions and become a strong, contributing member of the community. The young generation here will be the future leaders, chiefs, business owners, farmers, parents, teachers and they need to be equipped with the knowledge and skills that prepare them for such significant responsibilities. 

I read the Swahili proverb “Mla cha uchungu na tamu hakosi” (patience is the key to tranquility) today and thought that patience might be one of those virtues I need to brush up on.  Right now, our team is exercising a lot of patience in an effort to maintain strong relationships with the Ministry and other important parties. A peaceful process is instrumental to our long term success and our ongoing relationships with the powers that be. However, our whole team is coiled tight right now ready to spring forward. We want action. We want positive change that empowers people and uplifts the academic standards. We want to see vast improvements in the education system here that are sustainable and measurable. And while we have the patience to go at a reasonable pace and ensure our work is lasting, relevant and thoughtfully crafted, we don’t want the kids to suffer at the hands of a broken system any longer. 

The other day the education team was huddled around the table at Nyabikaye discussing school management best practices and drafting a plan for our school. The topic of the hour was how to set and enforce rules effectively. Sabora was sharing his thoughts on how teachers around here typically maintain order in the classroom. The approach is usually one of punishment and uncontested authority. 

Moses softly spoke up and suggested that we implement an approach centered on guidance and counseling rather than strict discipline. When he was a teacher, his school asked students to draft rules for their classroom during the first week of school. Students embraced the responsibility, thoughtfully crafting a set of rules. The first item on their list was “No phones in the classroom” – a clear message that students expected the teacher to be engaged.  The rules were comprehensive and focused on respect for their peers and creating a positive learning environment. The idea of empowering students in this way is uncommon here but effective. 

The other team members looked a bit skeptical but Moses went on to say that the students enforced the rules with their peers, teachers and visitors. Upon breaking a rule, students were quick to seek forgiveness and correct their behavior. In a place where kids are frequently caned and disciplined, teachers enjoy free reign and school is often more of a holding pen, you can imagine how novel it for the students to be trusted with such a responsibility. 

The team latched onto the idea. They decided it is not only an effective way to engage and inspire students, but it is also a powerful way to monitor teachers. The discussion had evolved into a brainstorm about designing a school that prized students’ development and let them know it by providing meaningful ways to contribute and participate. We talked of student-run leadership clubs, a student-led newspaper or radio, a shamba (farm) planted and harvested by the students that would be used for a feeding program…  We talked of experiential learning and unconventional teaching tactics. It was a creative breakthrough. I could see their minds deviating from the way “things are done” and branching into the “way things should be done” territory. 

As we continue to form a management plan for this school, it is essential that we think outside the box - and not blindly accept the way things are now as the way they must be. We have to think critically and creatively. We have to solve problems and be innovative. It took courage for my team to shed those perceived boundaries and take the plunge toward innovation.  The value of wild ideas is a tough thing to teach but this week I think we made some serious headway. 

The time for creative problem solving has come. Last week the education team’s progress was interrupted late Wednesday night by a letter from the Salvation Army, the current sponsor of Taragwiti Primary. The letter stated that the proper higher-ups at the Salvation Army had not been made aware of Nuru’s intention to sponsor Taragwiti Primary or the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that was awaiting final approval from the Ministry of Education (having already been signed by Ministry representatives, the parents, the school administrators and the Salvation Army pastor). In the letter, the Salvation Army representatives made statements like “…we oddly set our eyes on a copy of the MOU…” and “this MOU will not be recognized or honored by the Salvation Army church” and “The Salvation Army has no intention for whatever reasons, to engage in a partnership that shall infringe on her sponsorship rights, roles and responsibilities as far as schools are concerned and as provided for by the education act.” Hmm… a setback. 

The process of sponsoring Taragwiti was in full swing during Thomas’s term here, with meetings recorded since April between Nuru and the DEO, Nuru and the Salvation Army pastor stationed at Taragwiti, the local chiefs, parents, the Taragwiti head teacher and others.  Aware of this history and having met one of the Salvation Army representatives who had signed this disgruntled letter the week prior to discuss the sponsorship, you can imagine how oddly I set my own eyes on their letter. I promptly called Francis and shared the news, asking him to schedule a meeting with the Salvation Army as soon as possible. A meeting was set for Monday, August 2nd at 10:00 am. In the meantime, I gathered my thoughts on the situation. 

Why was it that the Salvation Army had suddenly appeared in the final hours when the parents had unanimously approved Nuru as the sponsor and we were just waiting for the Ministry to finalize the paperwork? Where had they been for the past few months during the numerous discussions? Why were they claiming ignorance when they were surely hearing about this from the parent committee, the head teacher and their pastor? And why did the very man I met with sign a letter saying he had just oddly set his eyes on something we had discussed the week prior? The plot thickened. 

I read up on the history of school sponsorship in Kenya and reviewed the Ministry of Education’s Education Act.  In 1963, when Kenya won her independence, the Kenyan government overhauled the education system. What had been a predominantly church run system led by missionaries and various religious entities was augmented by government run secular schools. The government recognized the power of the church in education as a funding body and decided to leave schools that had been established by churches under the sponsorship of that church. The role of sponsors in the Kenyan education sector was born out of this need for financial support and was formally included in the Education Act in 1968. The guidelines presented for sponsors in the Act are very hazy and ill-defined but most sponsors of public schools are religious entities that are there to provide spiritual guidance and teachings in the schools. Many also contribute financially to the material needs of the school. Few are actively engaged in daily operations or academic management. 

And so it is with the Salvation Army. They founded Taragwiti years and years ago and have held a presence on the school grounds ever since. The pastor stationed on the school compound provides spiritual guidance with lessons every Friday. The Salvation Army’s church membership in Taragwiti is also largely comprised of parents of Taragwiti Primary students. So while their role is not one of academic oversight or management, they have a presence at the school. 

In a way, the Salvation Army is actively engaged at Taragwiti. However, Taragwiti remains among the lowest performing schools in the district and has scores that continue to fall every year, the parents and students are outraged at the poor quality of education provided at Taragwiti and none of the students at the school have scored well enough during national exams to pass on to secondary school. The academic state of affairs is abysmal.  

Monday morning we had our meeting with the Salvation Army. Though they arrived 45 minutes late, we embarked on an amicable discussion. They proposed that they remained the legitimate sponsor and that we work under them and provide aid. They proposed that they keep the land and leave the school named Taragwiti Salvation Army Primary but surrender academic management to us. The proposals, though concessions of sorts, were not in line with our mission, values or goals so we declined. If we are unable to work out the sponsorship of Taragwiti Primary, we will move on to the next school on our list and work to make that one a model for the district. 

The meeting was inconclusive and the Salvation Army resolved to seek guidance from their superiors and get back to us next week. However this shakes out, it is an interesting example of how sponsorships work in Kenya and how we can never assume that good intentions and best laid plans will pave an easy way. 

We registered and then watched as men launched into a series of speeches aimed at setting the stage for the guest of honor, the District Education Officer. The speeches were long and flattered the contributions of the Ministry and teachers. The speakers faced the VIP tent and continued with long-winded deliveries even when the microphone failed and they could not be heard – one man talked for more than 40 minutes about the proposed constitution without any mention of education. Meanwhile, the students melted further into the ground… taking naps or sneaking off to play soccer. As Sabora and I sat in the hot sun unable to hear any of the speeches, I got to thinking about motivation in an educational system that is suffering from bloated egos, laziness and a lack of sufficiently qualified leaders. 

Sabora and I had purchased a program of the event which presented rankings and national test scores for all schools in the district. In it, the DEO’s preamble mentioned the top 8 challenges he has identified as priorities in the Kuria West district. They are:

1. Shortage of teaching staff

2. Increased number of orphans leading to difficulties in the learning process

3. Imprudent management of resources

4. Dishonest[y] in national examinations

5. Low performance in schools

6. Early marriages and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) which have led to drop-outs

7. Inadequate teaching and learning resources in some schools

8. Total teacher commitment to professional service delivery

I was impressed to see that the Ministry publicly recognized the lack of commitment and professionalism demonstrated by many education professionals here. And yet, two hours later various Ministry representatives were still delivering speeches to introduce the honored guest without any mention of students or possible solutions to these admitted challenges. Sabora and I took our leave, sending a note to the DEO thanking him for inviting us and expressing our appreciation for his partnership. I resolved to meet with our team about the results presented in the report and brainstorm ways to improve teacher/staff motivation. 

In the report, Taragwiti ranks near the bottom in almost all areas. Out of the 104 schools in the district, Taragwiti has the second highest decrease in national test (KCPE) score performance. Their 2009 mean KCPE score was 167.13 out of a possible 500 points, down from an already low 221.71 last year.  Teacher motivation is paramount to improving these schools. 

With that in mind, the education team conducted a brainstorm to that end. We wanted to focus on ways to motivate teachers without giving them financial incentives. How can we improve the quality of the work environment, how can we inspire them…? Here are some of the ideas the team came up with:

We will work to incorporate some of these ideas and others into our sponsored school to improve teacher participation. Changes like these will help catapult Taragwiti students’ performance in a positive direction.  I hope to see Taragwiti on the list of “most improved” schools next year rather than the list of “most dropped.” 

So, this woman has 9 children, 5 daughters-in-law, and around 60 grandchildren. Her sons are overburdened and incapable of sending all of their children to school. In this family, the traditional value placed on large families has triumphed over education.  Though some of the necessity for big families, such as having men to fight in clan wars, has dwindled, many of the adults still lack an understanding of why education is important. And as Francis so clearly put it, this lack of awareness is seriously exaggerating the intellectual poverty here.

As we craft the plan for our model school, our team must consider this cultural reality and determine how we can best impress upon parents the importance of educating their children. As these families become engaged in Nuru programs, they will have more income from their agricultural efforts that be applied to school fees and they need to understand why they should value and prioritize education. We want these parents to no longer use the free primary school system as a daycare but to invest in the minds of these youth and begin to value education themselves.  

Today Francis and I got to talking about early childhood development (ECD). He was stressing the importance of the early years and said, ”You don’t cut a tree from the top, do you? No… you must ensure a child is fully cooked.”  While that mix of sentiments had me laughing, his point rang true. A child’s educational foundation and early development creates stabilizing roots in many ways.

Many of the kids here have not developed a strong foundation because the schools themselves are weak. At Taragwiti and other rural schools in the division, baby classes, nursery classes and the early primary classes often have unmanageable student teacher ratios, insufficient resources, and other elements that pose major hurdles to quality education. As the Nuru education team works to design a school management plan that will transform Taragwiti into a model for the division, we have to ensure that we develop a strong base for those just entering school while also making up for lost time with the older students.  

As we hone in on child literacy and the management structure and interventions needed to affect change against that poverty indicator, we need to pick the most effective approach. Some schools choose to build a system that focuses significant energy on ECD – creating that foundation – and necessitates student retention and continuity. These schools have a very strict enrollment process, admitting only a few students per year who successfully pass screening tests and interviews. The schools that have mastered this approach and have strong leadership rank among the highest in the division in terms of academic performance. They are also inaccessible to many.

While this approach is effective, I believe our approach should also account for kids with flawed or nonexistent educational foundations. Our goal is to create a model for schools throughout the division that are similarly weak, under-resourced and poor performing; schools that tend to serve the poorest of the poor. These schools are full of students who lack a strong academic base.  In answer to this need, our team is working to develop an attack-from-all-sides approach that targets ECD but also addresses the needs of those students who are past the ECD level and behind.

Right now, Francis and I are visiting schools to learn what is working and what is not. We visited Duveskog yesterday and were both impressed with their leadership and academic performance. They face the same obstacles as other rural schools, and yet are the best performing public school in the division. They maintain very high academic standards and mentor their teachers to strive for excellence. Because of their success, students travel great distances, some even relocating, to attend Duveskog.

Duveskog’s school day is packed from 6 am to 6 pm. Despite the fact that they are unable to offer a feeding program, students are eager to learn and immerse themselves in the supplemental activities Duveskog offers – things like debate, drama, music, essay writing competitions and athletics. The government curriculum is augmented by tutoring sessions twice daily, ensuring that no child falls behind and that the entire student body exceeds the standards established by the government. As a result, the head teacher’s desk is completely covered with trophies.

Schools like Duveskog offer examples of outstanding leadership, teacher commitment, academic excellence and student engagement that are invaluable as we develop the sponsor school. Other schools offer examples of what to avoid. I hope we can continue to fuel collaboration and idea sharing between school leaders and teachers. It will help us carve out the correct path forward… and it will set the stage for replicating the things that work and rooting out what doesn’t.

As Thomas gracefully makes his exit from Kuria, so will I try to make a smooth entrance. 

My name is Lindsey Kneuven and I have been in Kuria now for a little over 3 weeks. I am serving as the new Education Program Manager, responsible for building on the momentum that my predecessors and Kenyan colleagues have created. I will be here through mid-March of 2011 and will be focused on creating a sustainable and replicable model school that will act as a platform for tangible positive change in schools throughout the district. The focus of the model school will be to significantly improve child literacy – no small task.  Thomas has done a great job preparing me, the team and the community, for this transition and I hope that together we can make this changing of guards as seamless as possible. 

To pick up where Thomas left off, Taragwiti Primary School was selected as the sponsor school after significant research and analysis was conducted by the Kenyan team. The school was selected based on numerous factors, some of which included: 

• It is one of the 4 lowest performing schools in the district 

• Parents expressed a commitment to improving the school’s standards and partnering with Nuru

• Students reported a strong desire to learn

In Kenya, public schools are largely managed by a committee of elected parent representatives. The process of sponsoring a school is entirely dependent upon the agreement of a school’s parent committee. As Thomas mentioned in a previous blog. Nuru held a meeting to propose sponsorship of Taragwiti – one that was met with a unanimous vote in favor of Nuru’s sponsorship. Here’s a quick clip showing the parents closing the meeting with a celebratory clap. 

With that beautiful display of support, the education team will begin to roll out a new school management plan, a sustainability plan and a district-wide replication strategy in partnership with the school community. The goal is not to trick out this one primary school and erase the challenges it faces through external funding. The goal is to work in partnership with the parents, the students, the teachers, the community, the local chiefs and the Ministry of Education to impact child literacy in a way that is wholly sustainable at the local level.  The goal is to affect change in a way that can be successfully recreated without financial resources at the small, rural schools that are suffering from child to teacher ratios of 70 to 1, no textbooks, untrained teachers and poor leadership – those with a very raw level of need. 

It’s hard to come into a community like Kuria and know that there is not a silver bullet for poverty or poor education. My hope is that this model school will uplift the quality of education at Taragwiti, significantly improving child literacy. That the structure, programs and sustainability systems we implement at Taragwiti will be adopted throughout the community. And finally, that these changes will equip schools to improve the quality of education they provide - creating stronger future leaders, engaging parents to value and prioritize education, and contributing to a community that is more capable of making educated decisions that empower them out of extreme poverty.

I am excited to embark on this challenge in partnership with a great team. I also look forward to sharing our progress with you. I invite your comments, questions and critique and look forward to hearing your perspective on these challenging issues. 

It seems that is the theme of my life, at least in the past five years since I left my comfortable home and life in suburban Maryland in the summer of 2005 for a country in Central Asia that most people never even heard of. After spending over eight months in Uzbekistan I left in a hurry and barely said goodbye to my host family and the three young men I had grown close to whom I worked with side by side for majority of those eight months. I hear from one of them on occasion but have lost contact with the others even in this age of Facebook. They are all in their mid to late twenties, married and even have kids. Life continues though relationships do not. I was reminded of these lost friends and ex-coworkers when speaking with Francis, my local education counterpart this past week. We were talking about me leaving soon and he shared how sad it is and that my time here was too short. I tried to comfort him by telling him that the new Education Program Manager, Lindsey Kneuven, will do a fabulous job as she is already here going through the turnover with the team and I. Francis mentioned, yes the team will be fine and Nuru will continue but he will miss me regardless.

That’s when it hit me. Francis has been with the education program from the beginning. He has seen it grow from the baseline data we collected with Meghan through the various programs we tried with Chelsea to the choosing of the new sponsorship school approach with me and now will see the sponsorship take off with Lindsey. And he is right; it isn’t the work that will suffer. Lindsey will do a great job of helping to see the sponsorship school through and finding income generating activities to make it more sustainable and scalable. Francis and the Education Coordinators are also more than capable of moving forward with the education program. But imagine working so closely with someone for six months and then having that person leave the country so that you may never see that person again. It has already happened to Francis twice and will happen a third time this week. I reflected on how difficult this could be for him and how much I will miss him and the rest of the education team. In fact, it is sad that we worked so closely and intensely together for the past six months and then I pack up and leave the country with no certainty of coming back. Of course this is also true in the other programs, especially in the agriculture program where they have spent almost two years with Jake. Ut will be extremely tough to say goodbye not just to coworkers but to friends. Maybe you are thinking, oh, I wish I never would see my coworker again. But anyone who has worked overseas will know it is not merely a working relationship. These people you work with so closely on a daily basis have welcomed you into their community and into their homes, not as coworkers but as family. We leave behind families back in the states and basically adopt new ones, in a new country, in a new culture, which makes our newfound relationships that much more special. And now we have to say goodbye.  

This is my last blog for this run here in Kenya and I am truly blessed for the experience. Lindsey is here now and she has taken over as the Education Program Manager and will work closely with Francis and the Education Coordinators to develop income generation activities and find more model schools in other divisions. A program update before I say goodbye. Last week’s video blog described a meeting with the District Education Officer that was postponed. We held it this week, though he did not show again. We were able to secure approval from the current sponsor, the area chiefs, the Division Education Officer and most importantly parents of Taragwiti Primary School to become official sponsors of the school. It is our first step, albeit a great one, towards developing a model school that will benefit the entire community.

Join the education team meeting at Taragwiti Primary school led by Nuru Education Program Manager Thomas Hong. Meet the whole education team including CDC Education Manager Francis Magige. Also meet Lindsey Kneuven, the Education Program Manager for the newly arrived FT 5.

It was quite a strange site as I sat on back of a boda (motorcycle taxi) on my way to Kehancha early one morning last week. We had set up a meeting with the District Education Officer (DEO) to speak to him about all that we did for choosing a school to sponsor. We needed to have him set up a meeting with the parents at Taragwiti Primary School to obtain their approval for sponsorship. It was an exciting time for our program as finding and setting up a sponsored school is crucial for our new strategic direction. It would be the base for starting our interventions and a place where we can really show improvement as a model school.  

Taragwiti Primary School is located on the road to Kehancha and that’s where we saw some commotion on our way to see the DEO. Dozens of uniformed students were running up the street with branches in hand and chanting. My boda driver asked what the students were doing and they said they were striking against their school – Taragwiti – and marching towards Kehancha to bring a complaint to the DEO. The students wanted the head teacher removed immediately and a complete change to all the staff because they were not learning. The boda driver and I were both amazed that students were striking. The situation had become hopeless with a head teacher who never showed up to school and therefore was not keeping the teachers accountable. When we chose Taragwiti as the school to sponsor, one of the reasons was because of its poor performance and need for overhaul especially at the top, but we did not realize how bad the situation had become.  

It is about a 40 minute boda ride from Taragwiti to the DEO’s office in Kehancha. Marching there on foot would have taken the students several hours. Indeed on our way back from Kehancha at around noon, we saw the students sitting a bit outside of town. However, they had been intercepted by some education officers who did not want the students to embarrass them by striking at the District compound. Eventually the students were taken by truck back to Taragwiti and parents were invited to a meeting at the school that afternoon. The DEO tried to squash further discontent at the meeting and announced a meeting with Nuru and the parents for the 21st of June (we set the date with the DEO that morning at our meeting).  

Though I have yet to learn about the fate of the current head teacher, the timing of everything was very interesting. It should give us a great opportunity to step in and change the academic setting at Taragwiti with parental support. We think that the approval process will be even smoother because of this incident and make our decision more credible in the eyes of the entire community. I am very excited about this as our program moves forward and though I will not be here to personally witness the school open under Nuru sponsorship, I cannot wait until we officially become the sponsor.

My understanding of success for Nuru in Kenya is if, when the western staff exits in five years, Nuru Kenya will continue to function and scale to other parts of the country eradicating extreme poverty along the way. Many international NGOs have worked in developing countries, producing great impact at first but once the NGO leaves, the local people are left with health clinics that have no nurses or doctors, classrooms that have no teaching materials or effective teachers, wells that are broken and do not pump water, etc. In other words the programs started by these well-meaning NGOs were not sustainable, including many that have come and gone through Kuria. That is the reason I had such reservations about the classrooms we built at St. Joseph Academy as described in my blog several weeks ago. Such programs could be good and they lift up communities but there is no sustained impact, no sustained development.

I believe one of the reasons for this failure of development organizations is that the balance and idea of power is skewed in developing countries. There are few who control the majority of wealth and therefore power, and often lord it over the rest of the citizens. Having only these kinds of leaders means that if a poor person somehow lucks out due to interventions or even hard work to be lifted out of poverty, that person would tend to use their wealth to become the kind of leader that they have been exposed to all their lives – ones who use their wealth and power to lord over others. These kinds of leaders do not uplift the poor but only themselves.

If Nuru is not proactive in combating such tendencies, we may leave behind Nuru Kenya that keeps wealth for only its members and leaves behind the majority of the population in extreme poverty. Typical leaders will act to keep their own powers and limit the upward potential of the rest and Nuru leaders could follow this path. Proactive combating of these tendencies comes in our model as “servant leadership”. We teach a different kind of leadership than what people here have encountered in the past. Instead of leaders who take more and more for themselves, we teach our leaders to truly be servants, to serve the communities whom we are working to help. It goes against everything people understand about having wealth and power. It is a paradigm shift that we are promoting and something extremely important to the success of our organization. It has been ingrained in the Foundation Teams and we are trying to help our CDC managers, not only to learn it but to live it.  

I was extremely encouraged this week when Francis, the Education CDC Manager, practiced servant leadership. Two of the Education Coordinators (EC), Francis and I visited a local school to speak with the head mistress about her school. When we arrived, the head mistress explained how busy she was and expressed her desire for us to make an appointment. We made an appointment with her for the following week and left. During our weekly EC meeting that afternoon, Francis apologized to the EC for wasting their mornings. He explained that it was his fault for not scheduling with the head mistress ahead of time and apologized for having them come to a meeting that never happened. It seems like such a simple gesture, yet I was extremely touched. Leaders here don’t apologize to their subordinates. Leaders here don’t express regret for wasting the time of others. Leaders here don’t admit their mistakes. Yet servant leaders do all of the above. Francis is internalizing the lessons he has been taught and offered a genuine apology. He is becoming a servant leader, so crucial to the success of our sustained efforts in Kuria and the rest of Kenya.

Morpheus, “This is your last chance. After this there is no turning back. You take the blue pill – the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill – you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes…” as Neo reaches for the red pill, “Remember, all I’m offering is the truth, nothing more.”

Cypher, “You know, I know this steak doesn’t exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. After nine years you know what I realized…” Puts piece of steak in his mouth and starts chewing, “… ignorance is bliss.”

In one of the most famous movies of the past twenty years, Neo is offered the chance to find truth and takes it by swallowing the red pill, whereas Cypher who has been living in truth wants to return to ignorance, to go back to the state of not knowing. It is difficult to fault Cypher (if it weren’t for the fact he betrayed his people) in wanting to return to contentment and comfort where life is handed to you and you don’t choose it. In this information age we live in, it is easy to get caught up in too many choices, in too many possibilities, in too many options that you end up choosing none of them or always wondering what if you had chosen the “other”. It is something that I’ve been struggling with recently as I need to figure out where to live back in the states for my domestic rotation. The fact that I can literally live anywhere has paralyzed me from making a final decision (coupled by my fear of commitment). In those times of uncertainty I wished how nice it would be to have no choice at all – to be handed a place without me having to struggle for an answer that may not be the “right” choice. 

This idea of choice and opportunity was a topic of a fascinating dinner conversation for our team last week. Coupled with the topic of happiness, we went back and forth about the value of knowing and how perhaps information only makes one more miserable. In other words, a person who never rode in first class is better off not knowing anything about it since he or she will not yearn for that first class option or be upset about the discomforts of coach. My contention was that I would choose knowledge and information over ignorance and comfort because that is the only way to move forward and grow as a person and even as a society. To be kept in the dark about opportunities may indeed leave you in a “happy” state but you miss out on ways to be “happier” even at the risk of becoming “sadder”.  

And really, this is the point of education isn’t it? As we are trying to help communities lift themselves out of extreme poverty, education is an important part of this realization because it opens doors for opportunities outside of subsistence farming. To go to school and become a teacher or a doctor or a pilot or a geologist or anything else; and that’s the point, to exercise options and contribute to society using natural abilities and learned skills. Because up to now people here have been disadvantaged in making those choices, limiting their abilities to climb out of extreme poverty. But armed with information, some will become successful entrepreneurs, wealthy businessmen, innovative scientists, etc. though realistically some will not realize their potential and information may stifle them or cause them to abandon their families. 

The opening of doors to information is especially true of our Nuru staff here in Kenya. As I and other Program Managers have blogged recently, we are bringing internet to rural Kenya through mobile technology. The internet is information in the most gluttonous form. We can find just about anything we want to find including scenes from a movie as linked earlier or a development/ education blog about the Matrix as you are reading now. When the Education Coordinators first got hold of this tool, they read day and night about Kenya, Nuru, rocks, mountains, animals, etc. They constantly read the Daily Nation (Kenyan newspaper) and the BBC website. As we renewed their data plans this past week, one coordinator who had been reading about mountains on Wikipedia and who had stopped reading online to save his last MBs for work said to me, “now I can learn about rivers.” Indeed as an educator I want to know more and want others to always seek more information. I would choose the red pill over a juicy steak and read about rivers and mountains.

The Scene:

It was a beautiful day as Francis and I were walking the shortcut towards Taragwiti Primary School. We walked up the goat path into the woods when about halfway up the hill we turned and saw a big beautiful white building that stuck out like a sore thumb behind us. My initial thought was, “What is that monstrosity? Did some wzungu build themselves a summer home or maybe a hospital in this poor village?” It seemed to stick out so much because it was bright white and enormous amongst brown mud hut buildings nearby. When I inquired about what that was from Francis, he informed me that it was St. Joseph’s Academy and those were the ECD classrooms we had helped build. It was the first time I had seen it from this side.

Some Context:

This past year the Nuru education program had initiated many different projects based on research of school baselines we conducted when we first arrived. It was apparent that school facilities were in very poor condition and one of the projects we started was to help schools renovate or build classrooms. Based on a priority point system we instituted, we began and finished construction at Keborui and St. Josephs’s. If you recall though from our new strategic direction (blog from March 8th) we are no longer going to continue such programs because of the high costs of constructing classrooms and the unlikelihood of these programs being able to scale or be sustainable. The research is also not overwhelming that these kinds of interventions lead to the type of outcomes we are seeking based on such a heavy investment.  

My Reflections:

I was a little shocked that this building was Nuru’s doing and honestly a bit ashamed. There is no doubt these classrooms will benefit St. Joseph Academy and its pupils but it makes me wonder how much more we could have done to benefit schools with the same funds. Though there is evidence that suggests improved school infrastructure helps students in developing countries, there is clearly more research that shows greater benefits for money spent to student achievement when schools are provided more textbooks and school materials; or as I shared in the last blog, there is more impact to investing in female education. This project is definitely a lessons learned for me about where to invest Nuru’s resources for future interventions (not to say we will never to do construction projects again for they may sometimes be necessary). A benefit of this kind of project, however, is the kind of buy-in we can gain from the community. The people in the communities see this building and are very appreciative of Nuru’s work in education. It allows us then to proceed with other projects with their support. I found this to be the case as we reached Targwiti Primary School and received full support for our education program and our future direction from the newly arrived sponsor who cited the classrooms as evidence of Nuru’s good work being done in the area.

We have not finalized specific programs or an evaluation metrics yet but the research seems to be overwhelming in the changes that result with the education of girls. “Opening Doors,” a report by the World Bank supporting its investment in education lists some conclusions of studies in female education:

• A year of schooling for the mother reduces child mortality by about 10%

• An additional year of female education reduces total fertility rates by 0.23 births

• Educated women are more likely to send and keep their children in school

• An increase of 1 percentage point in the share of women with secondary education raises per capita income by about 0.3 percentage points

Plan International’s “Because I Am a Girl 2009” report of developing countries further emphasizes the need for focusing on female education:

• Women with seven or more years of schooling have two to three fewer children than women with fewer than three years’ education

• Children of mothers who spent five years in primary schools are 40 percent more likely to live beyond the age of five

• Crop yields would rise by 22 percent if women farmers had the same education and inputs as men in Kenya

• In rural Uganda those with secondary education are three times less likely to be HIV positive than those with no education

These are but few of the benefits of focusing on female education with anecdotal evidence and further analysis left out, perhaps for a future post. There is even a website (http://www.girleffect.org/) devoted to getting this information to the masses and a facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/girleffect).  Indeed, I am very excited about the possibility of improving education for girls in Kenya and seeing positive changes in health, the economy and in agriculture. And through education, we can allow girls in rural Kenya to grow to be women whose roars will bring amazing and lasting change to the communities we are working in and eventually to the entire country.