On arrival we were met by Emmanual the ICT teacher and taken to the computer room which was full of people, including the Ward Executive Officer and Education Officer, the head of the local CCM party, the village chair representative, the school committee, chair, vice chair and other members and of course lots of teachers including the head teacher, deputy head and academic master. They had even drawn a welcome picture on the blackboard.
We have noticed that when visiting these schools in Geita and Chato there is a huge interest from the local community and the local education office as well as from the actual school, compared to when we visit schools in Arusha and Moshi. I think this shows how much the support that we offer means to these schools. It seems that very few Western visitors ever come to these areas and so the fact that we do visit and keep coming back seems to be appreciated by everyone in the local community, they really are very very grateful for any support they get. It is for this reason that all the new schools we have supported this year are in these areas and I think this is likely to be the same in the future .
Emmanual had prepared a brief report which he presented to everyone. At this point it was raining so heavily, he was having to talk over the top of the noise from the rain on the tin roof. He reported that the school now has 3521 pupils and 29 teachers. At present around 1500 pupils can use the computers including 312 from the local Secondary School and 180 from other schools in the local community. He then out lined all the benefits of having the computers and some challenges they still face.
We have supported this school since 2017 and at present they have 6 desktop computers, 1 laptop, projector and printer. Over the last year they have made some savings by being able to prepare and print the exam papers themselves. They have used the money saved along with some money raised by the school committee, to buy a photocopier which is great.
Emmanual had then organised for some of the students to demonstrate their computer skills. This was a very competent display by all students who were able to explain exactly what they were doing at each stage of the demonstration.
They showed us how to use Microsoft Word,
Microsoft Excel,
Microsoft Publisher,
Searching the Internet and using the projector so everyone could see what they were doing.
Drawing and Painting,
Playing Games and Music
Then, as usual there were many speeches from the teachers, local community members and education officers as well as the CCM politician, all thanking us for our support and asking us to continue to help them.
We then presented them with 3 “Thin Client” computers to try out for us. Thin Client computers are much cheaper than a standard desk top computer. They were originally designed as a work station for a central server network but have been modified with a small amount of internal memory to carry their own operating system with external programs like Microsoft office and other programs being run directly from external flash drives. The school will be using the computer for the children to learn and practice their ICT skills so do not need a large amount of memory so this sort of computer will be ideal for them. We also supplied them with 3 flash drives with all the educational software loaded on. We have asked Emmanual to try them out for us with the pupils and report back as to how he gets on. If they work well then we will use more of them in the future which will mean we can provide even more schools with computers.
It was now about 5.30pm, well after the school day should have finished. We left the school and drove back to Chato to get some dinner at a place recommended by the Education Officer. It was a typical Tanzanian meal of rice, beans and either fish or chicken. It was actually pretty good.
We then drove back to Katoro to drop off Hamisi and then on to Geita, arriving back at our hotel around quarter to 9. It had been a long day so we just went back to our room and pretty soon we were in bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment