lcbarrett43

2011-12-24T12:08:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 34

24/12/2011

We are well into the annual break at the end of the year and an opportunity for some belated reflection upon the past six months but especially as I come to the end of my time as Headmaster!

At present, I am the only brother at home in the community - the others have gone to their homes to share the spirit of Christmas with their families. However, all is not quiet as there is a constant stream of people to the school seeking enrolment forms for the new year and the normal home duties still need to be done – feeding the poultry and the new chickens (kept separately for the present) as well as keeping an eye on the dogs while trying to revive pour community lawn; we have also started a banana plantation which is slowly making progress.. and will provide an opportunity for some other gardening developments! Not quite what I would be doing in Australia but a bit of a throw-back to my early experience of family when the backyard was occupies by a chicken house, the growing of vegetables and the playground for the family dog – Player being my first memory but followed by others! There was also a bit of back lawn for games, etc!

So, I think it best not to give a history of the past couple of months, but rather to reflect upon the past four years as an experience and a challenge.

In many ways, I have mixed emotions about finishing as Headmaster, some centring upon what has been achieved along with the challenges ahead and others emphasizing that it was a good decision for me!

The basic reasons for being ready to hand the leadership on (to a Tanzanian brother currently on the staff) centre on personal experiences, two in particular, one being my very significant lack of language skills in learning to speak Kiswahili and the other being significant frustration with local (meaning Tanzanian) customs that are in sharp contrast to my own beliefs.

With respect to the first, I have to admit that a significant part of the problem is my own lack of commitment to battle with developing the appropriate skills despite a demand that English be the language of the school and administration as it is the language of secondary schooling including examinations – there is repeated feedback from examiners that poor language/English skills are a reason for significant failure! So, the dilemma for me became an insistence on English in my dealings with staff and students while many of the parents/guardians have no such skills and express disappointment that someone who has been here for a significant time has such poor Kiswahili skills. So, the change out of the role of Headmaster should relieve some of the pressures of dealing in a language in which I have minimum skills.

While, generally, I have survived the first principal difficulty – language – I do have to admit to being unable to deal with the second to the satisfaction of the locals particularly the staff; this is obviously a lack of cultural adjustment but it also became a personal challenge as to why staff (though not exclusively) demanded money for any and each extra piece of work that they did – as a matter of fact, it was made clear that we do nothing without additional money being paid; in other words – and in my opinion - there was very little commitment to students and to teaching but a huge commitment to personal advancement/reward for any and all activity. Coming from a previous experience of teachers being committed to school and students, I found myself frustrated by the demand for reward over any commitment to teachers. It started when I was asked what extra payment there would be for doing a ten minute class teacher period ( an expectation I have always had for teachers) and was constantly emphasised when teachers were unable to know the students in their class remaining silent when evaluations were done on students who had performed poorly or were in disciplinary trouble! Similarly, there was no commitment to the maintenance of the school – no staff member ever closed a window or a door at the end of the day – on some occasions, they were at the bus stop before their students!

I am sorry if the above sounds very negative but I doubt that it is far from the truth and reality for most of our teachers. Fortunately, there are the exceptions, some of whom share my frustrations!
I think the added pressure in this area was my own commitment to the school, its staff and students, and a seemingly lack of sharing of that commitment. It seems to be a good time to move on to some of the positives!

The school continues to have a fine reputation for its environment, its care of students and especially its commitment to teaching and learning. This latter may seem at odds with what is written above but, in contrast to the staff, the students are committed to learning and do so despite the various barriers that hinder success in that area. While teachers, in most cases, teach just one subject, the students have to study at least nine and without the help of any textual material other than through reference in the library or, more recently, the information technology rooms of the school. There is little doubt that the syllabi are significantly more difficult than for the equivalent Forms/Years in Australia and yet the school rates well nationally - generally just behind the exclusive private schools and select entry government schools! This is a tribute to the students who know that success for them is a significant step to opportunity for their future. So the features of any group of successful students include copious note-taking, shared discussion and regular examination/testing; discipline is not normally a problem – classes often study for the hour-long period even when no teacher is present (if one is absent for any reason, there is seldom any replacement or expectation of such).

And one could go on in similar manner about the way in which the students take responsibility for much of what happens at the school – in many ways making up for the lack of leadership and commitment of staff! But the students are not perfect either! The idea of care for property, personal and school, seems to have low priority – otherwise how does one explain the regular cases of ‘borrowing’ from others (and not returning!) or poor appreciation of the facilities of the school. I was told that there is no Kiswahili word for ‘maintenance’ and this may signify why things can be used until they are broken and no longer of use rather than consider repair in the first instance of breakdown.

But the real feature of the students is their friendliness and respect that constantly encourages one to work to improve their opportunities into the future. They appreciate what they have but do not always see it as a responsibility that it be there for future students/generations. I have certainly enjoyed their confidence and maturity – it can be difficult for some as they see the Headmaster as a very respected – but sometimes with a disciplinary role – position. They may not always understand me (my idiom is not always in line with formal taught English) but there is generally a very positive response and some remembering of key ideas!

As an example of the commitment to development by the school, the school is currently involved with three ‘new’ developments: 1) the purchase of a school vehicle (used Toyota Kombi-van) to enable travel to Arusha for those needing hospital treatment, shopping for the school and occasional transport to meetings; 2) the introduction of a data base to enable the keeping of school records, etc; and 3) the paving of the main drive and some pathways to enable ‘clean’ movement around the school! There should be no doubt that development of the facilities of the school has continued in recent years and the introduction of a Strategic Plan 2012-2016 should see further developments in the years to come.

Obviously much is to be done but progress is obvious – and one could expect that the school will continue to be a beacon for others! Interestingly, in my four years here the number of Catholic schools has grown from 5 to 14! While in the last couple of months two other private schools have announced closure due to financial pressures.

And this might bring me to my last point of reflection for the present – the management of finances is a significant task for administration. Remembering that the recurrent running of the school is almost entirely dependent upon school fees – and these have constantly increased in recent years – the financial management of the school is paramount. When I came, one brother managed all aspects of finance and business; now we have four staff in that area and it still seems to be insufficient. I expect that one of the areas I might be asked to continue to work with is in this area of finance. The school does not currently have any loans or need for overdraft on its accounts; however, I would expect that this may change in the coming years as the school looks to expand. But it will all depend upon the successful management of finances and this is not straightforward in a mainly cash economy! I seem to be back to money – so it is time to stop for the present.

In closing, I should say that I continue to be fortunate with my help – the only complaint might be the occasional back pain that must be a sign of aging or inappropriate sitting and standing. Though I have reduced my walking, it has been replaced by the farming tasks. The appetite is still very good (probably better than I need) and I do get to see some occasional sporting activity from Australia – watching the afternoon session of the cricket at 8 am is somewhat disconcerting.

At this stage, I plan to take my home leave late next year hopefully being there for Christmas and the holidays … but it is a bit early yet! While I have offered to stay and help in a variety of roles, it is not yet clear what they may be and therefore not yet clear as to what demands will need to be met at what times! But I am hoping that late in the year will be a good time to get away for a couple of months!

I hope the coming Christmas season will be full of the spirit of Christmas – peace, joy and blessing!

PS: For Christmas Day, we will be having a gathering of about 16 from about six nationalities, both African and ‘mzungu’ (white or non-African!) with myself having taken on the roast – pork and chicken!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Saturday, December 24th 20111

Reflection 33

2011-06-26T10:12:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 33

26/06/2011

We are in our mid-year break – so it is a good time to catch up on what has been happening here in Edmund Rice Sinon Secondary School and the local Brothers’ community.

April

Classes for A-Level commenced in late March while enrolment applications continued – though the number who qualified for Form Five was down, we have still managed to fill our expected numbers; we now have 265+ in each of Forms Five and Six thus reaching our optimum size for A-Level – there is still need for additional facilities if the A-Level is to operate efficiently, a couple of classrooms and a staffroom would be high on our priority list.

Classes for O-Level closed a week before Easter so that the ‘Easter Conference’ – the local gathering of Catholic students from the local schools to celebrate the feasts of Holy Week while being exhorted to be reflective of life and their priorities and commitments. The break was a little longer than usual as some public holidays occurred at the same time as Easter – it is still difficult here to know when days are holidays or not, especially any of the Islamic feasts as there always seems to be some debate over which day is the actual holiday (and sometimes there is debate within based upon the beliefs of the respective sect!).

School resumed mid-week for the short run to the end of term.

May

One of the features of May was the occurrence of Mock Examinations for Forms Four and Two, the latter the first experience of external examinations for these students – set externally, but corrected internally; so the quality of the exams varies and there is no standardising! The results of the Form Four exams will be available early in July – and then they have only three months to be ready for their final National Examinations which begin in very early October.

Other classes continued with the month/term finishing with term exams for Forms One and Three; Forms Five and Six are still in their first term and we are now thinking that the June break of four weeks while appropriate for O-Level is not appropriate for A-Level – different breaks will mean that the school is always open except maybe for Easter, a week or two in June , a week in September and maybe a couple of weeks in December.

Edmund Rice Day was postponed at the request of our Archbishop who indicated his keenness to participate on May 5th but then had to visit Rome and requested that we put the day back – now set for July 22nd – so that he could still participate.

Much of my time during April/May has been occupied by two developments – supervision of the ongoing construction of the final part of our physical developments for the time being and detailing the Strategic Plan following the four weekends of meetings to discuss and plan the future of the school. We are disappointed with the slow progress of the building developments and are hopeful that the builder will be off site by the commencement of classes in July. The Strategic Plan will enable the School Board to accept more responsibility as they come to grips with the future viability/sustainability of the school!

June

The month has basically been a break from school though the school seldom gets the break – we have already hosted two conferences of a week each, one for Catholic teachers and the other for parish catechists, and still have a gathering of brothers (for the final profession of a Tanzanian brother) to come. We are however able to do some maintenance remembering that much of the furniture is made at the school and grounds maintenance is also carried out locally.

While it has been relatively quiet, it hasn’t been without business. There has been a significant number of enquiries for places in Form One, Two, Three and Five – at the end of last week, I supervised some 60 students competing for the few places available.

The other direction for me has been in the finance management area as we develop improved systems that will monitor financial progress as well as prepare for audit. To help in this area both the Business Manager and the Accountant will be attending a four week course in Nairobi during late July into August. This aspect of the school may be one of the areas where I get involved into the future.

I have also spent time in monitoring the area of sponsorship/student support – while we had a good review/update by one of the volunteers last year, it is an area that needs constant work some of it by e-mail (and that is a good advantage) but others by post (and that is difficult due to the lack of reliability particularly locally)! We also have to maintain communication between students and the sponsor but have yet to streamline the processes. So this is an ongoing challenge!

Personal

While the past three months have been reasonably typical and progress has been ‘slow and steady’, the school is developing ‘somehow’ as the locals would say! It will be ready for a transition in leadership and I hopefully will be ready for a transition in role – at least that has been part of my thinking about the future.

Health wise, I have continued to enjoy good health – at worst, I did have a touch of cold in the head and chest but that seems to have passed. I think I may even have improved on the tiredness quotient but may still need to ease up on the ‘workaholiism’!

It is still interesting that I am happy to spend much of the holiday time in the office catching up on work – sometimes self directed – but it also seems expected of headmasters here as demanding messages continue to come during the break; part of the reason for this is that school holidays are still not set nationally – or even regionally! While a number of schools seem to coincide, it seems to be by accident rather than any organised agreement. Hence, we will be looking at the breaks for A-Level being separate from those of O-Level.

Enough for now!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Sunday, May 26th 2011

Reflection 32

2011-03-27T12:09:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 32

27/03/2011

I am conscious that I have not written for some time – since just on Christmas; so I am doing so – in the midst of enrolment season for A-Level which is due to start a new academic year tomorrow; hopefully I will get it done today – otherwise it may have to wait until Easter break!

For this one I am going to use some of the material from our website – I have managed to update it lately as well as putting out information on Form Five and Six enrolment. Hence there will be some chronological order to the events and consequent reflections!
January
Classes for A-Level resumed on Monday, January 3rd for the final rush towards the Form Six National Examinations in early February and Form Five internal examinations which will take place in late February. On January 5th, the second round of Form One entrance interview examinations was held with over 350 applicants seeking one of the 90 places available. Form Two, Three and Four entrance interviews were taken on the same day with many seeking one of the few places available.
The early return – not unusually – meant that the holiday for December was quite short particularly when I did some office work to catch up with some of the work not done during the latter part of the year. Our Christmas celebration went very well although we sat down a little later than scheduled bur still took a pleasant and relaxing three hours over the meal – ten of us! New Year celebration was even more relaxed as we went out for an evening meal with the other Brothers’ community in Arusha.
The first highlight of the year so far was Form Six Graduation took place on Saturday February 15th just before the arrival of O-Level students – this enabled a concentration on the graduates and a more comfortable setting for the day. Our fourth group to graduate from the very new A-Level section of the school consisted of 256 students studying across nine curriculum combinations including arts, social sciences, business and the sciences. Following the formal part of the day, the graduates gathered with families and friends to celebrate this significant stage in their life's journey - we are hopeful that many will proceed to further study at University or College.
O-Level boarders returned on January 16th with classes commencing on Monday January 17th; for the start of the year, all Forms were full as were the boarding and hostel facilities - just on 900 students are in O-Level classes with an average class size of 52! The population of the school for the start of 2011 is just over 1420 with 900+ in O-Level and 520+ in A-Level.
School quickly settled into its normal routine with all classes having teachers, student leaders being selected and the results of Form Two and Four National Examinations being received!
Form Two results were most pleasing with a regional ranking of 27th out of 302 schools placing us in the top 9% of schools. Our enrolment process at Form One seems to be working well as there were very few failures, a sign of the evenness of the enrolment and the industry of both teachers and students. We have not yet reached our aim of having an A student but must be getting close with 46 Bs (top average of 78) and 110 Cs! The top ranked compulsory subjects were Mathematics, English and Civics!
Form Four Results came at the end of January, a little earlier than in previous years! While our rank 225 out of 3196 schools nationally with over 40 students (putting us in the top 8%) in Form Four has improved, the general results were down on recent years as across the nation – and partly blamed on allowing Form Two students who fail at that level to continue! Three student obtained Division One status with a further 22 getting Division Two, 56 Division Three and 109 Division Four. There were a very disappointing 18 failures.
The National results were a bit of a disaster with a failure rate of 50% and a further 25% of students failing to qualify for A-Level studies – this probably means that we may struggle to fill our normal quota of Form Five students!
February - March
The second highlight of the year was the Opening Baraza for O-Level – it took place on February and was a departure from previous custom in that it was separated from Form Six Graduation – the smaller numbers enabled a full assembly of O-Level staff and students and allowed for the welcoming of new students (particularly the Form Ones) and staff while giving time for entertainment on a House competition basis. After the normal celebratory lunch with sodas, there was also a completion among the Houses for the clean-up of respective outdoor areas around the school. MANDELA House was successful in the performance competition while they shared the honours with LUMUMBA for the cleanliness competition.
Early February also brought the completion of the construction of the two O-Level Science rooms which were occupied immediately by Form s 4A and 4B to allow their desks to be available for the Form Six examinations. Other constructions are proceeding with the Information Technology, Sick Bay and Seminar Room due for completion by Easter. Very welcome news was received from the Australian High Commission in Nairobi offered financial assistance for the equipping of the IT rooms.
We have been able to develop a liaison with an NGO – VIAFRICA – and another project – KISA – to assist with the purchase of computers and related equipment as well as the purchase of programs which will add considerably to our learning resources.
February 7th brought the start of the Form Six National Examinations with all students available for the two weeks of examination papers. With external invigilators, the exams proceeded well with few problems and students remarking that most papers seemed to be ‘fair’! Results are due in late April or early May.
As soon as the Form Sixes were finished, the Form Fives took one week for their examinations, the reports for which are due to be distributed in mid-March.
At the end of February, we were advised that two of our Form Three would be spending an academic year in America after being chosen from a large number of student applicants from Arusha and elsewhere. In early August, they will leave for Iowa and return in May next year to complete their Form Four studies – what a great opportunity!
Interviews for places in Form Five commenced on February 14th- earlier than in recent years - shortly after the publication of the Form Four results and were taken by members of the Leadership Team and senior staff.
We have now interviewed over 535 Form Five applicants (for about 270 places) and some 40 odd Form Six applicants (for some 15 places). Form Form Five we have so far offered two rounds of places – while a large number have taken Joining Instructions, not so many have returned their forms or paid the required fees. So tomorrow and the next few days will be interesting to note how many students we get – estimates range from 170 to 280 with boarding places at a premium and will go to the early arrivals until full.
The principal reason for the uncertainty is the process of students being offered places in Government Schools – these were not done until after we offered our first round of places. Students then decide if they will take the place offered or seek alternatives – so we have two groups, those who have applied here but choose to go to a government school (generally without any notification to us) and those who have waited for the offer of a place at a Government School but – for a variety of reasons – choose not to go and then apply to us! Students offered a place in a Government school have to go to that school or seek a place in a private school!
So that is the story of the school so far this year.

Brothers’ community wise, we have had some changes with the departure to Nairobi of Br Vincent Mallya and the arrival of two – Br Francis Nkwabi from the Sudan to become community leader and Form Five Coordinator and Br Nicholas Odhiambo just out of initial training. The new group has settled in well and most of the previous tasks continue even if in new hands. I have held onto two – managing the community house for organisation and reception of guests and the Sunday evening roast; we have recently killed one of the pigs – so roast pork is on the menu for the next several months (when we have another one for the chopping block!).

Community routine and school business mean that other activities are seemingly kept to a minimum. We also are conscious of our volunteers – five at present (two Irish and three Australian) with another due in the next two weeks; they continue to be a huge asset especially in the Special program but in many other ways as well.

So, the final question might be “how am I going”? Well I think the following communication from the District Leader might be a good gauge:

“Q We spent some time considering a succession plan for yourself. I communicated to them what you had shared with me that you would be very pleased if you could hand over the principalship by the end of the year/beginning of the Form 5 year in 2012. I also told them about your confidence in Joseph Mburu taking over and perhaps Nkwabi stepping in his role.
R I am still very strong on the idea of handing over the leadership of the school with a number of reasons behind that: I am conscious of being a ‘workaholic’ and that is probably not good for me on a number of grounds, two of them being 1) the lack of a healthy exercise routine and 2) the other being a tendency to become a ‘grouch’ when under pressure (from ‘overwork’ and maybe a consequent lack of ‘being human’ time. I am conscious of being distant from students – too much so when one is the supposed ‘father/grandfather’ image.
Q The DLT was in favour of doing all we can to answer your request for handing over. We are aware that your original three year plan has past and that you are now in your fourth year, you have experienced a certain amount of difficult with language and other challenges. You will be 69 (68 actually!) soon and so, it is more than fair for you to hand over!
R While age does have something to do with it, I think the language problem to be the greater strain. The ability to be over committed – maybe taking on too much – is also a concern; it may also be a sign that I don’t trust others to get things done! (As an aside, it was interesting to note last evening that a Form One girl pointed out that those (all Africans in her language) in the other administration offices were gone while the mzungu was still working! Out of the mouths of babes!!) …….
Q The idea would be that during the year, (if you accept this as a reasonable possibility and that if …… also sees himself as capable and interested in doing the job) you mentor him and introduce him to the aspects of the job.
R Happy to do that as needed.
Q Next year, if you feel that you would like to stay on in some other role, you could do that and still be on the ground for any coaching or advisory position as he takes it on.
R Similarly happy to do some things that may lighten the burden on the Headmaster – but only if needed and seen as helpful.
Q So, my task was to communicate this with you and to ask you to ponder if for a while and see what you think. I will not approach …..until I hear from you on it. In some ways it is not urgent, but having you think about this proposal is the first step.
R I think some of my current reflection may be influenced by how I see the present moment – extremely busy and making little headway in completing/catching up with some of the things that need to be done. On top of that is the ‘tiredness’ even noted by others without being sought!
So I think that can be summarised in terms of my being over busy but still enjoying the opportunity to be here – a little more relaxation and fewer things having to be done might give a better balance to the experience!

Enough for now – regards to all and I still like to hear bits and pieces of news from family and others!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Sunday, March 27th 2011

Reflection 32

2011-03-27T12:09:00.000+03:00

Reflection 31

2010-12-22T16:15:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 31

22/12/10

Christmas is coming – really! – and I haven’t updated for the past three months! So it is time to cover both with some reflections on the past three months which have gone very quickly and to offer all the wishes for the coming Christmas season.

School-wise, it has been more of the same – ie some things don’t change – but also with some good news about development.

Historically, events happen in sequence here and since we resumed on September 20th, the following have to be noted:
• Form Fours had their two Graduations, one for their respective Dini (ie religious group) and one for the total group – both were enjoyed by all but I wonder at the amount of distraction they cause so close to the examinations! For this reason we have looked forward to the Form Six finish and brought the public Graduation forward so that it is over well before the examinations begin – actually it is on January 15th just before the O-Level (Forms One to Four) students return as we are also conscious of the impossibility of having all the students plus guests at the Graduation function – 2000 is a reasonable estimate if the full school is in session!. The Form Six Dini Graduation will wait until all the students return – so it will be a little closer to their examinations.
• The Form Four National Examinations went without a hitch, there being no public outcries about cheating, pre-release of exams, etc. We are hopeful of good results but have to wait until mid-February before they will be available (much too long a wait considering that they were all finished by October 22nd!) And then they might start school by the beginning of April.
• Immediately after the Form Four examinations, we had our first enrolment interviews for Form One 2011 – 646 students sat for the interview with just over 200 places available! The new examination papers – set by one of our Australian volunteers - worked well and allowed us to have a good range of scores
• We have offered places to 210 and over half of these will be taken by the beginning of January when we will have our second interview session – some of those who missed out the first time will re-sit with no penalty for doing so.
• As soon as the offers were made, I had a stream of parents/guardians/students seeking sponsorship of their place; while we do not give full sponsorship to any, the situations of some are plainly calling for maximum support. We do not offer sponsorship for anyone in boarding and that enables us to offer more support to the local people for either day or hostel (come Monday, go home Friday), the latter being principally offered to Maasai students.
• Then came the Form Two National Examinations – this means leaving here at 6.00 am each day (for two weeks) to pick up the examination papers for the day and the one external invigilator – all the other supervisors are staff of the school. At the end of the exams each day, there is another trip back into town to deliver the papers of that day. The Form Twos are luckier than the Form Fours – they will get their results in early January about the start of school.
• Finally we had the internal examinations for Form One and Three – the Catholic schools have different schools setting a paper but all correction is internal and is followed by the reports for these students.
• For each of the Form One, Two and Three students, as they finish examination (Form Two) or collect their report (Forms One and Three), they receive information on the next year – class, optional subjects (these don’t cause much hassle) and their situation for the following year – boarding, hostel or day – based on their progress and cooperation over the year. It generally means that some boarding students miss out as others outperform them, etc. Then come the appeals for a change but we are pretty firm on the process and the decisions there from!
• While all of this O-Level end-of-the-year process is going on, the A-Levels are proceeding with class, CAT (common assessment task) exercises and preparation for the run to the end of their academic year which occurs at the beginning of the next calendar year!
• One other highlight for the A-Level students was the election of the new school leaders for 2011 – and I mean election with policy speeches, etc in good fun but looking for a serious outcome. I took some workshop sessions on what is needed of leaders and on an alternative structure; I think they have come up with excellent choices.
• I have also been taking some Dini/religion classes with the Form Six Catholic students on “personhood” with some very heartening responses – we will finish early in the new year.

So that is the story of the normal activity over the last three months of the year – but there is much more going on, particularly this year:
 The construction of the Science Rooms for O-Level has commenced and caused the normal attraction for students and distraction for classes – hopefully both, but at least one will be ready for use from the start of the O-Level year in mid-January.
 During November, we received further news on developments with support being offered for the development of Information Technology laboratories, a new Sick bay/Nursing Station and a Seminar Room.
 These developments will complete the most recent planning except for one aspect and that is the procurement of sufficient computers to make the IT development substantial and successful; up until recently, most of the computers in the school came second-hand in a container from Australia about ten years ago – a life span of some 10 to 12 years is excellent for a computer but they must now be replaced. We are hopeful of getting some through a scheme operated by a Dutch NGO, have also applied for assistance from the Australian High Commission (for East Africa) based in Nairobi and hopefully will find some support elsewhere.

During these latter months, we have also been working with staff about developments for 2011 – it means some changes, some forced and others optional, have taken place among staff but I am hopeful that we have all the staff that we need for 2011 from the start of the year. The most recent appointment was for a receptionist-secretary for the administration wing – looking for someone who will work closely with the Headmaster and other senior staff on administration matters; the first choice knocked the offer of back because of the salary offered and the next has accepted without hesitation. So the big task now will be to train her in what she is to do and how to do it – I am pleased that the former methods will go!

The Administration Team has had to deal with the many challenges associated with the above developments at the same time as adjusting to change within the Team, principally the move of Br Vincent Mallya, the founding director of A-Level, to development activity for the brothers and further study while based in Nairobi. It is another significant change in the administration over recent years – one of the current staff (with previous experience in administration at another school) will be moving up to take his position as Deputy Headmaster for A-Level.

Vincent’s change is just one among the brothers community which will also see other changes as it moves from the current four members t six at the start of the year. Vincent is being replaced as community leader by another Tanzanian brother – coming from Yambio in South Sudan – who will move into A-Level as the Form Five Coordinator. Of the other two to join the community, one is a senior brother (ie older than myself) moving out of administration in a ministry in Nairobi (also a Geelong supporter!) and the other is a young man just out of his initial training as a brother. So it will be a rather new community come the start of next year!

A couple of other aspects of the life of ‘brother’ have also taken place and deserve a brief mention:
o Last week the brothers of East Africa gathered for three and a half days to view progress in ministry and vocation and to plan for the future, a future to be marked by diminishing financial support and tightening of belts! On the social evening, the community from Sinon ran a trivia night for the brothers – though unfamiliar with what it was at the start, it was a great success by the end of the evening with keen competition between the communities and much dispute with some answers.
o Speaking of a Trivia Night, last evening three of us enjoyed a meal at the Kibo Palace, one of the top tourist hotels, courtesy of the success of two of us at a recent trivia night for Food Water Shelter our neighbouring NGO – I may not be able to remember your name but I may know trivial information about you!!

It is time to close, but not before wishing you all a blessed and peaceful Christmas:
May you feel the quiet beauty
Of that holy, silent night
when God sent the little Christ Child
to be this dark world’s light.
May you know the peace He promised,
may you feel His presence near,
not only just this Christmas
but throughout a happy year.

Here, there will be eight of us at Christmas dinner – it was to be twelve but four have been snow-bound in Ireland by the extreme weather in Europe!

They are taking a risk with the chef – but I can only do my best with three to four courses! Now do you wish you were here!!

Regards

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on December 22nd 2010

Reflection 100918

2010-09-18T14:37:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 30

18/09/10

I have now been back in Edmund Rice/Arusha for approximately ten weeks – we are currently on our mid-term break for O-Level and end-of-term break for A-Level; the differences in terms still some getting used to but it is not a problem for the students.

I could summarise the past ten weeks as ‘more of the same’ but that would deny the variations that take place, many due to local circumstances and others caused by individual preferences! So here are some paragraphs about a variety of things!

The school continues to prosper and the demand for places seems to increase rather than decline despite an increasing number of government schools – reasons generally given dfor wanting to come to Edmund Rice include the following – poor facilities ( that is not to say that the facilities at Edmund Rice are top quality but they are better than in many schools), few teachers – and the lack of teaching from those who are there!, accommodation, and the reputation of the school. With over 1400 students and over 1000 in accommodation, it is basically impossible to get a place at present and now we are preparing for the entrance interview examination for next year’s Form One!

Speaking of these entrance examinations, it appears that - despite every attempt at good security – that our examinations have been leaked and are available publicly (someone is making some extra money!). We even had one student in the July examinations for a few places ask for the green paper as that was the only colour her eyes could deal with!! (We have had four relatively equal papers, coloured differently blue, green pink and yellow). W are now working on new ppers for this year’s examinations!

I was quickly reminded that I was back in Arusha with power blackouts regular during July and August (it has been better in September) and the ever present dust of the dry season. It takes very little time for a new coating of dust after one has cleaned shelves etc. The students do a reasonable job on my office but it has to be repeated frequently!

July and August have seen a number of visitors and some changes in our volunteers. We had a small group of educational leaders from Australia, an immersion group from Eastern America (Rhode Island) and a couple of individuals. The group from the US were particularly helpful in that they worked on the biogas unit and increased its output significantly as well as helping to wreck our old O-Level science rooms in preparation for further developments – see later!

The number of volunteers is slightly down but Special Programme is still providing challenges and enjoyment for all who get involved in it. It has been particularly pleasing to have two Coladjians (ie from Colac!), one of whom, Jenny Jones was school captain of Trinity in the early 90s. Two recent arrivals will see us through to the end of the year and next year is looking promising with one, an Irish lass, to continue and a couple of new ones to come from Australia.

School life continues – lots of students, a regular programme, sufficient teachers and enough encouragement and discipline to ensure that the task of education is a high priority. As usual but with less frequency, there have been a number of changes in the staff of the school, a couple choosing to leave for various reasons and a couple moved on due to issues that made it difficult for them to continue in employment in a Catholic school. Replacements have been no problem with many applications being made by students finishing their degree or diploma courses at university or college respectively. It is still difficult to judge the quality of the teaching as they do relatively little field work but much academic study. With the government trying to emphasise that the style and quality of teaching have to change and improve, many are still resisting and continue with the traditional style of ‘chalk and talk’ giving little life to lessons or learning!

Administration –wise there have been some significant changes. With Br Robert Oloo moving back to Nairobi for his further studies, there was no brother to replace him; so his duties have been divided with the appointment of a Business Manager and an Accountant. The Business Manager is a local (ie from the Sinoni area and has excellent connections, good community relations experience, knowledge of the school (two of his children have so far attended the school) and is very keen to see that things are done properly by and within the school. The new Accountant is well experienced and has made an excellent start with the school needing to change its budgeting procedures and being audited annually within the ministries of the Christian Brothers in East Africa.

The other main change taking place at present is the building of two new science rooms and a preparation room for O-Level – the main funding for this has come from Ireland. We are now in the process of seeking further funding to enable completion of this section of the O-Level; the old science rooms will be converted into two IT/Computer laboratories, a smaller space for the staff and a room to be used eventually for both Fine Art and Music; we are also hopeful of completing the science wing with a nursing station/sick bay and a seminar room. A recent visit from a European NGO has raised hopes that some funding for these developments will be forthcoming hopefully before the end of this year.

We have set up a planning committee responsible for further planning for both A- and O-Levels – while the facilities continue to be an asset for the school, there is still much to be done to ensure that both maintenance of current facilities and the development of further facilities is planned and prioritised for the betterment of the school. One current interest is the matter of security – while we have a defined site, access to it is quite general with little secure fencing and thus causes some problems – we have had a couple of invasions of our boarding houses during daylight!

Change is a constant and it would seem that there will be further need to reorganise the managements structures of the school due to further expected changes in personnel. One example of the need would be with respect to the brothers on the staff – by this time next year, I may be the only one of the current brothers still on the staff and the replacement brothers are not expected to move into current administration roles taken by brothers. So it will be interesting to see what new structures arise!

Community-wise the loss of Br Robert has meant that we are now down to four, but still truly international with a Tanzanian, a Kenyan, a new Zealander and myself the Australian. We now have fewer games of cards but there has been some compensation with the decision to have a dish to enable reception of some TV options, basically from South Africa. It has meant that I have been able to see some AFL – including Geelong’s loss yesterday to Collingwood – and some rugby (eg all the Tri-Nation games) and some other international sport. Times of the various events is a problem – seven hours behind Eastern Australia, one hour ahead of Cape Town, and three hours ahead of England – US sport is always overnight or delayed. We also get world news at good times – 7 and 9 pm!

This week, we have also had some maintenance done to the house – some skylights to brighten our main room, a repaint and some other small repairs. It certainly has brightened the house and ensured that we do a ‘spring clean’ of some of the materials accumulated over the past twenty years – cassettes, books, old curtains, clothes, camping gear, kitchen utensils …. The week of the mid-term break was probably not the best week to have the interruptions but it is now finished and we will have everything back to normal by th start of school next week.

We did take a full break on Wednesday last when the community - and one recently arrived visitor from New Zealand – had a picnic day trip to Ngorongoro Crater – it is not really a crater but a caldera according to our geography man! It is regarded as one of the main tourist attractions particularly for its wildlife – which has to stay in the crater as it is not possible for them to migrate over the walls of the crater. We left just after six for the three hour drive, had a quick breakfast and then drove into the crater for about six hours of slow driving, frequent stops and more slow driving – after all the driving while others took photos and video, I think I am qualified to be a tour driver if I ever end up unemployed here. We saw many of the animals – see the pictures accompanying the blog – but were disappointed not to see a couple, namely rhinoceros, leopard and cheetah.

With these recent developments being as good as a change, I think I am now well ready for the final term of the year; it will be very interrupted with graduation of the Form Fours, National Examinations for Forms Four and then Two, report writing for Forms One and Three, etc. In ten weeks time (ie by early December) the academic year will be over and another (longer) break will be upon us.

Health–wise I have had a good ten weeks with one short bout of stomach upset – I cooked a roast for volunteers and a visitor but was not able to share in it! I have managed a couple of games of golf (with a visitor from Perth – and the form was pretty reasonable!) but not too much other exercise; I think the regular monitoring of school activity , teacher presence and student games keeps me reasonably active.

So I close with one brief reflection – life is full of anomalies! Particularly here where the contrasts are so obvious between people and places of very similar backgrounds – males and females, young and old, families, teachers, etc ; I am still learning to be aware of cultural differences but it is a slow process. The students are some of those who understand that adjustment is slow – they allow for the fact that I have not learnt much of the language and are always willing to offer assistance; working with the young continues to be the great joy of my still being involved in school – and there may be a couple of years of that still to come.

Regards

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Saturday Srptember 18th 2010

Reflection 100706

2010-07-06T09:31:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 29

25/06/10

I didn’t get in a reflection before leaving for my break – as you will note from some of the following it was a bit hectic during March and April and the energy level was in decline - but am doing so before I return for the start of Term Two in early July. The break has certainly been very welcome and I am looking forward to my return.

Following the completion of the Form Six examinations by mid-February, the internal examinations for Form Five were held and then the academic year for A-Level was complete. But that doesn’t mean a break for the administration as enrolment for the next academic year begins – and it is all done by individual interviews.

Form Four results for the National Examinations were published in mid-February – they were our best so far and we were ranked in the top seven and a half per cent of over 2200 schools in Tanzania. The implication from such great results is that many of our students were offered places in well-reputed government schools win which school fees are minimal and that is vital for many of our families. Over 50 % of our Form Fours qualified for A-Level and about 85% of those were offered a place in a government school – the student either accepts the school offered or has to find a private/non-government school; some government schools are remote, have poor facilities, maybe very new and with few teachers – thus some students choose to seek a school such as Edmund Rice!

During late February and March we interviewed over 650 young people seeking a place at Edmund Rice – they ranged from those with excellent Form Four results to those who had just made the bare minimum requirement of passing three subject with a grade C pass. Places in Form Five were offered on three occasions and we began classes after Easter with c270 students in Form Five and c250 in Form Six – we are now at maximum enrolment for A-level (c520) and for the school (c1400)!

Similarly we are also at maximum capacity for boarding and hostel (c440 in O-Level and c640 in O-Level) with c320 day students – within the next two years the number of students will reduce slowly as a bubble (an extra class) goes through Forms Three and Four. Hopefully, we may also be able to reduce numbers as we try to reduce class sizes currently in the low fifties. But that is more an economic decision than an educational one – I think all would agree that smaller numbers would be very desirable; but smaller numbers may also mean that some students miss out on an opportunity for post-primary education!

In the last week of March, the week prior to Easter, O-Level took a break and the school hosted the annual “Easter Conference” for Catholic students across the Archdiocese. While we ask for a limit of about 700 on attendance, the organisers continue to take all interested and this year there were about 1200 – matters were made worse when it rained steadily for most of the week, a good omen for the long wet season but disastrous for the amount of mud left everywhere even on newly made and painted beds! It is obviously a great experience for the young people who attend but we will need to be more specific with regard to numbers and care – it is the school’s contribution to youth activities in the Archdiocese (along with a couple of other weekends during the year) but it should not be at too much cost to the school!

April 8th saw the whole school – ie both O- and A-Level - in operation for the 2010 academic school years and it was quite busy as we accessed some new facilities – some redevelopment of A-Level classrooms had taken place during the February-March break and we were also able to use newly rented boarding facilities for O-Level boys.
Continued 6/07/10

The first couple of weeks of A-Level saw the Form Fives settle in quickly and classes started with much enthusiasm ….. and then it was time for me to leave for a two month break in Australia!

I do not intend to give a diary of the break – suffice to say that it was quite relaxing though the weather was typical for that time of the year, late Autumn into Winter. However, it would be appropriate to give some of the highlights.
 I was able to catch up with all members of the family except one - the nephew who has been the only family member to visit me in Arusha! Each of the families had a family gathering to honour one of the members – 70th birthday, first birthday, card playing to name some examples. I also caught up with some of my cousins – we only cross paths infrequently.
 I was also able to visit some past places of ministry – most notable Colac and Launceston - and to note the developments that have been taking place there but principally to catch up with the friends and staff within those ministries.
 I was also invited to visit some schools, both primary and secondary and generally from the wider Edmund Rice network rather than from EREA schools; I wonder whether there is some sense of saturation with respect to knowledge about Africa and the ministries there – I also note that some of ‘our’ schools support a wide network of charitable needs, maybe to the detriment of the various Christian Brother ministries touching the underprivileged!
 Having access to the two recent videos, one on the ministries in Africa (The Other Africa) and the other specifically on the attention to sustainability in the school at Arusha, made for ease in sharing about the ministries and of my experience of ministry within Africa and specifically within the the school at Arusha.
 I participated in a gathering of like-aged Christian Brothers as we examined ‘signposts’ in our life’s journey.
 The gathering took place at Mulgoa to the west of Sydney and was followed by two days in Sydney itself – the highlight of the two days was catching up with Sharon O’Keeffe and Rachel McLean two young women who had made great contributions to Edmund Rice Sinon during the more than twelve months that they spent there.
 There were other opportunities of connecting with the brothers of south-east Australia – their interest in the ministry at Sinon varied according to their experience of it and a good number have been in ministry at Sinon.
 I was able to engage in some of my sporting interests – some (though not as many as imagined) games of golf and some as spectator at Australian Rules football – again not as many as he been planned, partly due to weather conditions and clashes with other events.
 All of these happenings were good for me but I cannot leave this section without mentioning the hospitality and warmth of the reception at the East Melbourne community – Bill W and Kevin A were most hospitable as was Tim M when present. Their openness to my differing interests was much appreciated.

In closing this part of the reflection, I must express my appreciation to all who welcomed me, hosted me and showed interest in my most recent experiences. Asanteni!

Despite being at considerable distance from Arusha, I have also been able – through the internet - to maintain some connection with the events at Edmund Rice over the time of my break; thank you to all who have included me in their communications. Some of these happenings are as follows:
 The Form Six results were published almost immediately after my departure – we are again very pleased with the performance of our students - 33 Division One (compared to 7 in our first year and 21 in our second), 54 Division Two, 75 Division Three and 29 Division Four in only our third year of A-Level is indeed excellent. Many schools have not made the effort to include the sciences in their combinations but are ranked alongside those schools that do – so we are very pleased to still rank so highly. However, there is still concern with the number of students who do not qualify for tertiary study and that will continue to be the challenge for us.
 Edmund Rice Feast Day celebrations were again a highlight with significant participation from staff and students as well as an excellent attendance from the Form Six Division One winners – 28 of the 33 were present despite having only five days notice.
 A strike by our senior (ie Form Six) students was a first for the school but not a rare incident among Tanzanian schools. The concerns were addressed and school resumed without too much disruption or prolonged action.
 We received news that we have been offered funding for a project to build two new Science Rooms for O-Level and thus also enable the development of a much larger room for Information Technology – this latter has become a must as the number of staff and students now accessing the internet has grown rapidly due to the emphasis placed upon it by the administration and teaching staff.
 Towards the latter part of May, various O-Level examinations took place, most notably the TAHOSSA Mock Examinations for Form Four, the Diocesan Mock Examinations for Form Two and the Term Examinations for Forms Three and One. Reports were written for Forms One and Three with those for Forms Two and Four to be done upon receipt of the results of the Mock Examinations.
 School closed for the mid-year break on June 11th and will resume on July 13th immediately after the completion of the World Cup in football in South Africa.

Now it is time for me to return for the start of Term Two for O-Level and the continuation of Term One for A-Level. I am looking forward to it and acknowledge that that there are some new and different challenges ahead, two in particular: 1) the development of new Science Rooms for O-Level and redevelopment of a room for Information Technology – while significant funding has been received for this, there is still need for more! 2) with the departure of Br Robert, the school’s Business Manager, for further study, the management of the school’s finances will be a new direction for me – however, I have confidence that those selected for the task will be assets in themselves and that appropriate support will and is available.

I look forward to my continuing involvement with staff, students and the wider community as together we work to make Edmund Rice Sinon Secondary School not just a good school but a great experience of human growth and endeavour inspired by Edmund and the Jesus upon whom he modelled his life!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Tuesday July 6th 2010

Reflection 100307

2010-03-07T11:07:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 28

28/02/10

Happy New Year – well that is what I intended for the first of the reflections for 2010 – and this is it! Even if after two months of the ‘new’ year!

In some ways the lack of an early reflection for the year is probably a sign that the year has started in much the same way as the past two!
 An early start to school - Jan 4th for Forms Five and Six and Jan 13th for Forms One to Four
 A hectic period of enrolment work for the new Form Ones – the second round of interviews was on Jan 6th, just one week before they were due to start school
 Regular, almost daily requests for a place in the school at each of the Forme One to Four such that we are now ready to put up the ‘Full, Full’ sign – and now have 880 students in Forms One to Four
 An increase in boarding/hostel places – by the commencement of the academic year for Forms Five and Six straight after Easter we will have 1000+ on site each Monday to Thursday night and 800+ for the other three nights
 The publication of results of the National Examinations for both Forms Two and Four
 The National Examinations for Form Six have taken place
 And now we are in the middle of the Form Five enrolment period – with 260 interviews in the first week (of at least three!)
 And in a capital works development to improve the A-Level facilities

And that is just the business of the school – which does take the majority of interest and time though not all. We have also had the final profession of another African/Tanzanian brother as well as some visitors and the arrival of new volunteers.

Some comments on a couple of these – though not all - seem needed:
1. We continue to look for ways of increasing boarding options but have not yet reached saturation – ie demand still exceeds supply! We have increased the number of laces for both boys (46) and girls (28) in O-Level and will be increasing the number of places for boys in A-level by about 90.
2. In the Form Two National Examinations our results showed another small improvement over recent years as our ranking improved slightly with most of the schools ahead of us being small private schools of selective entry or the elite entry Government schools. However we are still to achieve an A grade pass – ie an average over 80; but we are getting close with two students averaging 80! Next year!
3. In the Form Four National Examinations we performed very much in line with the Form Two performance – improvement but also leaving us with challenges. We had our highest number of Division One successes, our highest number of students who qualified for A-Level and an excellent ranking nationally – top 7.5% for schools with over 35 students. The downside is that we still need to have more students qualify for Form Five/A-Level.
4. It is also worth noting that our results should also be noted in the light of increased failure rates in both Form Two and Four Examinations – both increased by about 5% nationally.
5. We are hopeful that our Form Six results will be in line with those of Form Two and Form Four – it is only our third group to sit for Form Six, also our largest and the students for the most part have worked hard – though very much in a local way! – to get the best possible results as a place (and some financial assistance) at a university depends upon the results.
6. Form Five applications are expected to be extremely high with many of the early applicants being those students who have just managed to gain the minimum entry requirement of three credits, ie a grade C pass (41 to 60) or better. Most of these do not expect to be offered a place in a government school while some with the better passes are desparately seeking boarding as their preferred option. We also have had a number of enquiries for Form Six as the reputation of the school is spreading!

So life has continued to be busy but very typical – however that also means that one can forget the great things that make life here different and variable. One of the ways of reflecting on this was some questions asked in one of my Christmas mails – so I’ll attempt to respond through this reflection.

The community aspect of the school is an absolute blessing – not only do we have more than twenty-eight tribes represented among our students, an imbalance between boys and girls of 60-40 in favour of the boys (who seem academically more capable than the girls though some girls are very capable – one of the equal top two students in Form Four was a girl but the first girl in Form Two was ranked 26th out of 245!) and a mix of religions that seems to make little difference within the community – 40+% (and increasing) Catholic, 30+% Lutheran, 10+% Pentecostals, 10+% Muslims and many other smaller groups – Seventh Day Adventist, Baptist, Anglican, Assembly of God, Mennonites, African Inland Church, etc!

The students are generally very respectful though preferring often to give responses that they think you want rather than their own thinking. I have certainly enjoyed making contact with them though learning names when one doesn’t teach them is difficult; I probably have more personal contact with the O-Level students than the older ones – this year I am teaching an Advanced Mathematics class of girls only (they are keen to do science and we are encouraging them in Mathematics and to ask questions, etc – not normally done in mixed classes where the boys dominate). Last weekend I walked with some Form One girls on Saturday – we visited a children’s home funded basically from Western Australia – and some of the Form Two girls (and a few boys) on Sunday – we headed for a local ‘mountain’ but turned back because of threatening weather. The girls are keen on the walking for exercise and a break from the school scene while boys are always happy to play football on any occasion. Other than exercise, the washing of clothes on a weekly basis and a nap, the main option for weekends is study! Saturday night is social time – mainly a movie shown in our multi-purpose hall. As the girls get older, exercise slips out of the activities of most!

The staff are similarly respectful and cooperative to authority – but can also look for ways of dodging responsibility when it suits. The majority are male – but we are slowly increasing the number of female teachers and do have a couple of long-serving, dedicated and highly respected ladies whose priority is teaching. Though invited, they are not willing to accept administrative roles – thus all administration is in the hands of the men! And we are now developing some good structures that are encouraging those appointed to take on some responsibilities – budgeting, monitoring teachers’ work schemes, curriculum meetings, etc - all adding to the school’s reputation as one where teachers are present and working with students; this is a constant theme of the many who continue to seek a place in the school – they do not have teachers who teach!

Enough for now – other than a couple of personal notes:
1) I continue to enjoy good health but am conscious of being tired – it really is a seven day a week experience, very much like it would have been for brothers in the boarding schools in earlier times.
2) So that is a way of introducing my plans for a break back in Australia; I will be leaving here on April 26th, arriving early on April 28th and taking a break until July 4th! At this stage the break has no organisation and much of that will occur once I arrive back. Some rest, heath checks, reflection and probably some golf will fit in, but I am sure that visiting will also occupy some of my time.
3) I will also be happy to visit schools and other groups to talk about the experience, our needs and the possibility of coming this way! But only by invitation!

Hopefully I will get in one more reflection before I visit home!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Sunday March 7th 2010

Reflection 091220

2009-12-19T15:24:00.001+03:00

20/12/09

The end of the year is close – which also means that Christmas is even closer! School has been finished for a couple of weeks – but some of our Form Sixes stayed on for another two weeks as the school is a much better setting and possibility for study than home and many are conscious that their National Examinations are just five weeks away once we return to school on January 4th – no long Christmas break here! Holidays mean that you are not at school though many will ‘amuse’ themselves by attending tuition – generally run by teachers out to make some additional finance!

So! What has happened over the past two months?

One answer is ‘examinations’ with the Form Four National Examinations in early to mid-October, followed by some VET (Vocational Education and Training), then the Form Two National Examinations in early November followed by our own internal examinations for Forms One and Three – very fortunately, this year there have been no suspicions or tales of cheating through the availability of papers and the answers!

In the latter two cases, ie Forms Three and One, that also meant correction and the writing of reports with the Form Four and Two teachers to help as they do not have any corrections or report writing; the Form Four results are expected in late February (remember they sat in October) while the Form Two results (they sat in November) will come in early January, about the same time as the commencement of next year’s classes.

A few of our teachers have been involved in the correction of the National Examinations, particularly Form Four, and it is a very valuable experience as they come back with better understanding of the requirements of the students (and also the teachers) in sitting for these examinations. They also get paid for doing so – hence it is a keenly sought task – while the Form Three and One classes are still in school. One of the disappointing features is that it is often the same teachers year after year – they are reappointed unless they decide not o do it; so the opportunity for other teacher is limited until a vacancy occurs. It is only in recent years that teachers from the ‘private’ – ie non-government schools have been invited to be part of the correction panels; each panel goes to a location where they sleep, eat and correct – as well as collate – until their task is done. It generally takes three to four weeks per subject!

While the theme of Forms One to Four has been ‘examinations’, the Form Fives and Sixes have continued with classes though some of the Form Sixes have become complacent since the results of the Mock Examinations were published. Despite warnings and the example of previous years, many are just waiting for the final examinations – it is hard to blame them after six years of intense and high level study. Our science students are the exception as they realise that they have to work very hard if they are to improve on their Mock results – there is a good realisation that the science courses are hard, maybe even harder than the arts and business studies, and thus success requires more effort; hence most of the 50 or so who stayed for extra study – and some guest lecturers – were science students.

While students and staff have been concentrating on the end of the year, the administration – and particularly the headmaster have been busy in preparation for the new year!

At the end of October, after the Form Four examinations, we had 660 students sit for the first of our Form One 2010 interview tests – 240 were offered places and so far about 110 have accepted. The remaining places will be offered after the second day of testing on January 6th – with school to start on January 13th! Then, another 300+ will sit as well as many seeking one of the few places that may be available in Form Two, Three or Four.
As an example of the difficulty with respect to the numbers seeking enrolment at Form One, the results for Standard Seven, the end of primary schooling, have been announced this week – just over 50% (of around 1000 000 students!) have passed; of these about 400 000 have been offered places in government schools and the rest (about 600 000) are ‘invited’ to seek secondary education in private schools with no recognition that many cannot afford private education. Hence many are finished their education or will just simply try to repeat Standard Seven even though it is not ‘legal’ to do so! If you are not happy with the government school to which you are appointed, then you have to seek an alternative outside the government system – and that is the other group seeking enrolment at Edmund Rice in January! The government will make a second round of offers, but only after about eight weeks of the school year has passed!

So much for Form One enrolments! For the Form One, Two and Three classes of 2009 we have been sorting out classes, options and accommodation possibilities. In the latter case, one of the requirements for continuation in boarding or hostel is that you perform creditably in your present Form – hence, one of the difficult things to do at the end of the year was to inform some students that they cannot continue at school (in very few cases) or in accommodation (in a few more cases!) and then deal with the appeals of students and parents!

As well as the student organisation, we have also been organising staff/teaching allotments for next year and thus appointing new staff – it has been a good experience and I was pleased to appoint six new teachers, mostly young but qualified and have been able to add to the female membership of staff with three young ladies, one herself a past pupil of the school, another the sister of one of the Christian Brothers of East Africa. I am hopeful that we will have a full staff at the commencement of the year – but that is not likely to be the case! One can only hope.

With all of this going on, the break for Christmas – New Year is most welcome! Before describing the plans for the break, some comment on some of the other happenings seems appropriate:

 During Late October and early November, we were saddened by the deaths of two young children of our non-teaching staff; one only a few months old died suddenly and was buried almost the same day - most burials take place on one’s property rather than in any formalised cemetery. The other, also a girl, died in hospital in Dar Es salaam aged thirteen after a battle with leukaemia. She had spoken to her father by phone the evening before to tell him how she hoped to be at Edmund Rice next year! We then had to organise the transport of the body from Dar Es Salaam – by use of our own vehicle; otherwise the family could not have returned the body for local burial. Such deaths are a reminder not only of the transitory nature of life but also of the high mortality rate here among young people.

 Towards the end of the year, we have also been busy with planning for the future of the school both from considering the maintenance needed as well as planning for other needed facilities. This also means seeking funds for such works from non-government overseas agencies and writing the relevant submissions. We have already had success in getting financial support for some remodelling of some of our A-Level classrooms during the senior school break in late February and March, not a huge amount but will cover 90+% of the costs. We are also painting some of the classrooms of O-Level, areas which have not seen new paint for some considerable time – the painters are keen and will be finished 13 rooms by Christmas! Other plans and submissions are also on the drawing board!

 Another significant development is the professional development of the Deputy Headmaster of A-Level, Br Vincent Mallya, who has just finished a three week intensive course on school management – it was conducted by an NGO set up to support missionary groups working across East Africa. Vincent has also completed a course in planning and managing projects – conducted by the same organisation but only a week in length. Such opportunities have been funded by the Brothers’ Foundation in Melbourne (at least that is where it was based when I left Australia)>

 The last couple of weeks have seen a number of visitors; one is the former headmaster, Br Frank, who is on his break from Yambio in the Sudan; another is a former volunteer who has brought her family – mum, dad and two younger sisters - to visit where she volunteered three years ago. We are also saying farewell to a number of volunteers who have been here for varying lengths of time and this includes some from Food Water Shelter ,our neighbouring NGO set up by five young Australian women some of whom got their fervour Africa from working at Edmund Rice in the past their building is now complete and the mammas and children have moved – it is termed a children’s village and has been in process for a number of years but is now finished and operating.

But now it is time to take that short ‘break’ across Christmas and New Year – just two weeks left. So this last week before Christmas, it is tidying up (a sort of spring cleaning!) and getting ready for Christmas Day. I think I’ll be going to ‘midnight’ mass in one of the parishes – midnight being around 8.00 pm! Then we will have Christmas Day at home with some visitors, a brother from the neighbouring community and about six volunteers and visitors. The main meal will be around 2.00 pm with myself as the main cook but it will be a leisurely meal with additions from our visitors – mostly Australians will be present with at least one New Zealander. The African brothers of the community will all be home with their families for Christmas.

The week after Christmas will be spent in Nairobi – assuming we survive the continuing hazardous road conditions – due to be finished in 2011! The brothers of East Africa are gathering for a three day meeting with a day either side for us to travel – so that is most of the week. We return on December 31st in time for a quiet new year! … and the start of school on January 4th.

So let me conclude with a Christmas wish that appeals at this time:
May peace be with you this Christmas
May you be blessed with an open heart
to the love of those around you.
May you be blessed with a compassionate heart
for the cries of the poor and needy.
May you be blessed with a demanding heart
for our planet in crisis
yearning to give life to all.
May the motherhood of Mary
be a sign of ultimate hope for you
and may the God who dwells amongst us
enfold you forever in love.
God bless.

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on December 19th 2009

Reflection 091004

2009-10-03T11:41:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 26

04/10/09

Another two months have passed and much has happened – particularly over the past month or so. And I will concentrate on just some of these.

Academically we have had the Form Six Mock Examination - ie practice exams for the National Examinations – and recently received the results: 62 Division One, 49 Division Two, 58 Division Three, 38 Division Four, 13 Failure and 1 Absentee. These are excellent results and we would be very pleased if they were maintained into the National Examinations – but our experience has been that the final results are not as good as the Mock Examinations; I think this says more about the standards and processes of the Mock Examinations than about our students becoming too confident although this can also happen. The other aspect of concern is that surrounding the Science Combinations where the results are well below those in the Humanities or Business Combinations – while this is being addressed, the students express concern re the teaching, etc leading to some unease about this direction of the school. Many schools do not attempt to offer the Science Combinations – they are regarded as too difficult – but there are still many students who want/need them for their career aspirations such as doctors and engineers. We continue to monitor the situation and processes while encouraging our teachers – qualified science teachers are very difficult to obtain – to work hard in their classes to encourage the students.

Early in July we had the results of the Form Four Mock Examinations and these too are very encouraging; we have since held our own pre-National Examinations as a further practice for the final National Examinations which start this Monday, October 5th.

We have also had Form Two Mock examinations but still await the results though the papers were returned over a week ago! The Form Two National examinations start on November 2nd.

With the start of Form Four National Examinations imminent, it means that we have just passed through the ‘graduation season’ for Form Fours. External groups as well as the schools ‘graduate’ the students – so it can be a busy time and very distracting from the ultimate task, that of sitting for the National Examinations. Edmund Rice holds two graduations, Dini Graduation where each of the dinis/religions graduates their respective Dini members and School Graduation where all the Form Four students are graduated at a full school assembly.

The Dini Graduation for the Catholic students was quite a celebration – coordinated by the TYCS or Tanzanian Young Catholic Students association – and took place last Sunday as part of our weekly Sunday Mass. The graduation recognised some 80+ Form Four students but was preceded by one Baptism, four First Communions and nineteen Confirmations! Though planned to take about two hours, it was closer to three hours and was then followed by speeches and presentations. Such a celebration highlights the place of religion/spirituality in the lives of the students and the wider community and the effectiveness of the Dini programme even though it is only allocated one hour per week for each student. There are also groups gathering for prayer each morning (optional) and of an evening (compulsory) before night study – all coordinated and run by students.

The School Graduation took place on last Wednesday, September 30th, with the formalities taking about four hours and then being followed by private family/group gatherings which took a further two to three hours – all at school. The day proceeded well after the late arrival (45 minutes) of the ‘mgeni rasmi’ or special guest – the District Commissioner was invited but eventually sent his Administrative Officer who is also a parent of the school. The weather was excellent, the entertainment varied as usual and the speeches, even the Headmaster’s, were all reasonable in length.

In September, each of the levels, A-Level and O-Level, take a short break ( ie end of term One for A-Level and mid-Term Two for O-Level) – this year the break was complicated by the anticipation of the end of Ramadhan (in the calendar for Sept 22-23 but eventually declared for September 20-21!). This meant that all O-Level students were due back for classes on September 24 but over 240 Form One, Two and Three students did not come until the following Monday – they were sent home to come with their parents on the following Thursday to explain the absence! While this had some effect on preparations for Graduation, it also had a desired effect of emphasising to parents and students that the school is serious about attendance, etc. The parents for the greater part are most apologetic with assurances that such additional ‘holiday’ time will not occur again. It was also a reminder to many that an explanation of any absence is expected.

In the midst of all of this, there was a very non-local event in which I was very interested – the AFL Grand Final. Having sat in the office all season picking up descriptions of very varying quality, I was pleased that the GF was to be shown live in at least one of the clubs here in Arusha – they were even prepared to open early to accommodate the small number interested. We were about ten in all - with other Australians present but not fans of Aussie Rules – and only two had a strong interest in the participating teams, both Cats’ supporters; the very staunch Saints supporter found a cheap fare home and went to watch the GF as well as to celebrate his 30th birthday with family he is due back early this week. With the game starting at 7.30 am and finished, presentations and all, by about 10.45, it left the rest of the day for other tasks – but I spent much of it reflecting on Geelong’s good fortune in winning a game that could have gone either way!!!!

So that is the AFL season for another year – I still think that I will be able to fill in the weekends until next season! However, with the start of the Form Four Examinations, one is also conscious that the end of the year is approaching. And that means Form One Enrolments ( the big day is October 24th when several hundred will sit for the first of the Entrance Examinations) and planning next year’s programmes with the current Form One and Two students.

For this blog update, you will also notice some new pictures – these are courtesy of two volunteers, Abhiroop and Rashi – husband and wife - who originally hail from India but came to us for three months via Dubai – they returned there a week ago to start anew! They were keen photographers and have taken photos to various themes some of which are mentioned with the pictures – enjoy!

They were also responsible for introducing our senior students to a ‘trivia night’ which was most enjoyable – as one student put it “much better than sitting watching a film”!

So that seems to be the summary of the past two months – with much being ‘normal’ about the school and then the more recent practice examination, mid-term break and preparation for the final run to the end of the year.

During this time, I have continued to keep good health – even had two games of golf during August, the weather has been consistent (only one shower of rain for the past three months) and the dust has been prolific! Hopefully the ‘short rains’ will come soon and we will have a much better ‘wet season’ early in the new year…..

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on October 3rd 2009

Reflection 090809

2009-08-09T11:07:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 25

26/07/09, 02/08/09, 09/08/09

The holidays have come and gone and school is back in full swing – that could be the brief summary of what has happened over the past eight or nine weeks since the last update; but obviously there is/has been more! However I prefer not to spend too much time on happenings at this time – it seems preferable to speak of some of the ‘characters’ and ‘situations’ that are part of the normal pattern of life here.

However a few details/comments on happenings first! The holidays were generally uneventful – I spent all but one week here catching up on bits and pieces, keeping an eye on works around the school – such as preparing to stand up another container as a food silo (increased numbers meaning increased storage – we recently purchased our supply of beans for the next year at 55 million Tanzanian Shillings, expensive as crops have been extremely poor this year due to a very poor wet season), erecting washing basins, fixing floors in various parts of the school, etc - and having a generally quiet time – some exercise, some reading, some cooking and some videos of an evening.

The other week – the second of the holidays I spent at Canossa Centre on the outskirts of Arusha making an annual retreat; this time it was a book retreat based on two books, A Presence That Disturbs by Anthony J Gittins (for meditation) and Walking On Water by Madeleine L’Engle, a favourite of mine (for reading). The centre, run by the Canossan Sisters, an Italian order in its origins, is a quiet and relaxing place with some spacious grounds and some reasonable, even if dusty, walks. The meals, etc were excellent but I did have to experience body washing as the basic ‘daily shower’ due to water difficulties. It was a good break and I did feel somewhat refreshed afterwards.

The first three weeks of school have been basically a season for visitors – three groups and a couple of individuals as well as the arrival of a new group of volunteers. The first group of visitors was led by Br John Carrigg from Perth and consisted of six educators from various schools around Australia – on a short visit to both Nairobi and Arusha during mid-year holidays in Australia; the second group consisted of ten school boys, mainly seniors from near Philadelphia, USA, here for a two week visit during the US summer holidays – they came from the school of the Mshomba boys whose family are originally from here and who holiday here during the US summer break while visiting other family members (we have the use of the Mshomba House for volunteers when they are not here); and the third group were the staff and members of the Karibu 2009 group with six staff, mainly African brothers and ten members from England, Ireland, India, Canada and Australia ( I was a member of the previous Karibu 2007 group while I was discerning whether I would be coming to Africa/Arusha).

In each case, the visitors had a tour of the school, met with staff/students – the American students spent a full day attending classes with one of our students – and, in the case of the Karibu Group, walked home with some of our Maasai students before having an evening meal at the school (prepared by the Home Economics students of Forms Three and Four) and being entertained by the senior choir – the choir also sang their final Mass a few days later as their programme ended in Arusha.

The new volunteers consist of four young Australians from Melbourne and an Indian couple who live and work in Abu Dhabi – they joined three continuing after the holidays, an Irish lass and two Australians, a lady teacher from Sydney and a male youth worker from Melbourne. Others will be coming over the next couple of months, a New Zealand couple coming from England will be next to be followed by another New Zealander (after watching Rugby in South Africa), an Australian man coming via the UK and an Australian lady teacher who is on a year’s leave from Emanuel College in Warrnambool, Victoria. I am now having enquiries about volunteers for 2010 – so it looks good for the future also.

Enough of the events – I think there is also much to be learnt from the stories of the people with whom we deal here:

1) F is a 22 year old girl who finished Form Four in October 2006 and did quite well. As her family is extremely poor, she then went to work for over two years to save some money to pay for her A-Level years (ie Forms Five and Six), invested it so as to accrue enough to pay for the hoped-for education and enrolled this year at Edmund Rice. She came to see me at the start of this term as she had become aware that her investment was in a pyramid scheme which still promises a return though the leaders (ministers of a Pentecostal group) have been arrested or chased and the fund barred by the Government. F was worried that she would be put out of the school for non-payment of fees (as has to happen – otherwise many would not bother to pay!) She has showed me the results of her first set of tests and is doing extremely well but I had to explain that all her money was ‘gone’ and we (she and I) would have to find an alternative way of meeting her commitments – but also guaranteeing that she would continue at school. That is the challenge!

2) J is a Form One girl whose mother came before the holidays to discuss her difficulties in meeting the fee commitment. At the start of term J’s brother, the eldest of three children in the family and a first year university student), came to see me to tell me of the death of his mother over the holidays – the father had died some twelve years before – and of the impossibility now of meeting any fee commitment. The school will be able to assist but there is a constant struggle to assist or support the many who have financial difficulties.

3) D is a Form One boy with a European father and Tanzanian mother. The father returned to Europe and invited the mother to visit him leaving the boy (and two younger children) with family and friends – in the case of D, a friend already caring for her own four children. That lady knows that the father has died in a road accident but has had no contact from the mother for some six months – but the boy has not been told and is now pining for family contact. The lady continues to support him but with great difficulty due to her own circumstances and is very frustrated that she cannot contact the mother. We have the boy in our hostel but weekends are very difficult for him and he spends almost all of the time at school with his friends.

4) M is/was a male teacher at the school who has had a rent loan and another loan from the school. He did not attend for the last week of term for correction and report writing and has not yet returned to school. Following many attempts at contact, we received a message from someone who claimed to be a brother of M stating that he had been ill and would return soon – that was two weeks ago and still nothing further! This situation is not rare. We have a new teacher replacing M in his classes.

5) D is a male teacher of senior (Forms Five and Six) classes who married during the final weeks of last term. Having seen the Deputy Headmaster for A-Level, he took a week to get ready for the wedding with the expectation that he would return soon after for his classes. He actually missed all of the next fortnight except for the second last day of term (pay day) knowing that there was a volunteer who would take his classes if he was missing – no explanation and somewhat aggrieved that his behaviour was questioned!

6) As the second day of the new term was a public holiday, I organised for the first day of term to be a staff day with the requirement that all attend. Staff were informed that they would be docked for any absence – six still chose not to attend without explanation with two of these not returning at all!

7) Every Saturday morning the Headmaster’s office is visited by a small group of Form One girls asking what cleaning they might undertake – and then they do a great job as there is almost always something to be done. At present it is basic dusting – now that we are in the ‘dry’ season, dust is everywhere and a very common event is trying to keep things clean. The girls are always happy to have something to do and the occasional ‘zawadi’ (small present) is much appreciated.

8) The students at all levels generally appreciate having a school uniform and wear it well though they also have the trend of elsewhere to be ‘fashionable’ – the most common behaviours are ties out and at half mast (but they are keen to wear one!) and shirt tails out! The introduction of ‘shamba dress’ (prescribed casual dress) for the boarders has been successful but the additions for fashion purposes are not dissimilar to what one would expect elsewhere.

9) A new introduction since the beginning of this term has been our own Sunday liturgies for the different Christian groups – the Muslims use Friday for visiting services at the local mosque. The Catholic Mass is attended by over 200 staff and students and we are gradually using English as the language – a further extension of our programme to insist on English being the language everywhere (ESP for ‘English Speaking Programme’).

Enough of the bits and pieces – you may have noted that this reflection has been written over three Sundays. Last Sunday (2/9) was set aside to update the blog but we then had a ten hour power black-out and that means no internet and hence no blogging.

We are fast approaching another period of examinations – these keep the students on their toes and are reminders of the reality that everything depends upon the results in the major examinations. We will have short break of 7 to 10 days in mid-September and then the rush to the end of the year – the Form Four examinations start just six school days after we return from the break. And then they have a five+ month break before they can start Form Five if they are successful in gaining entry to such.

In closing this reflection, can I assure you that I am keeping excellent health (even though no golf for twelve months!) and handling the good and bad (or highs and lows!) with some of my normal reaction to frustration!! However, I continue to be busy, to be learning and to be looking forward to the success or otherwise of the various developments that are taking place – we are trying to instil a spirit of generosity, community and progress through the development of initiatives that challenge some of the local complacency about how a school operates or should operate; some appreciate the changes while others fail to understand why one would want to do things differently.

Community (and hence school-) wise, we have said farewell to Br Paul Follas who has been here as Business Manager (and general factotum – power, water, dogs, chickens, etc) for the past twelve years; it is a huge loss but we have the benefit of his contribution to build on. He is taking a break in NZ before returning to work as Business Manager for the brothers throughout Africa, based in Lusaka in Zambia. He had already been replaced by a brother from Kenya – so the change will not be too drastic, we hope. To help I will be taking some responsibility for some bookkeeping of District and related finances – a few lessons in Quickbooks before Paul left has been useful but I think practice will be the best teacher.

So the community is back to six brothers, one from NZ, three from Kenya, one from Tanzania and myself – a good mix – most of whom enjoy the occasional game of cards with an emphasis on fun – such as Africa Is Hot (the local name for AH!), Thirty One and Pass The Ace. We are not into Canasta yet!

So how are all of you?? I have not heard from too many in recent times and thus believe that all must be well!
This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Sunday, August 9th 2009

Reflection 090517

2009-05-17T14:48:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 24

17/05/09

It is only about five weeks since the last update – but the end of term (for our O-Level) is in sight and I think that updating the website has encouraged me to do both around the same time – and an apology to those who may read similar things on the website. But there is a lot of other information on the website besides recent news.

So, I will start with school new with the various events in the order they have happened! Following the six week enrolment period for Form five students, A-Level students began classes after an initial orientation of one day. Both A- and O-Level students were together for just one week before the younger students left for their Easter break.

They were replaced at the school by young people from many schools around Arusha coming for the ‘Easter Conference’ – four days of reflection and celebration centred on the principal events of the Christian celebration of Easter. Though 600 or so were expected, estimates placed the number at close to a thousand. Despite cool and occasional rainy weather, the spirits of the young people were high as they entered wholeheartedly into the reflections and celebrations. A-Lev el classes continued on some of the days but the students were also able to join in the liturgical celebrations.

Following the Easter break, the O-Level students returned to join the A-Level students in ‘shamba dress’ as the alternative to the school uniform for Boarding and Hostel students, For A-level students, it is black skirt for girls and black trousers for boys with a grey top, preferably the school T-shirt. For O-Level student, it is khaki skirt or trousers with the House colour top. Students have adapted quickly to the new scheme and it has certainly lightened the cases from carrying various casual clothing as in the past.

Last year the A-Level students, when asked to find names for their four Houses, decided upon aspects particular to Tanzania, namely the National Parks and the main result of mining. So the Houses are named Kilimanjaro – Red, Tanzanite One – Blue, Mikumi – Green and Serengeti – Gold.

With the formation of the houses for O=Level, another set of names was needed and this time the challenge was to recognise prominent figures in African history. The result is that the Houses are named Nyerere – Red, Nkrumah – Blue, Mandela – Green and Lumumba – Gold.

On May 1st, the results of the Form Six examinations (or ACSEE) became public and we were pleased to note the following: Division I - 21, Division II - 35, Division III - 68, Division IV - 27

It was pleasing to particularly note the increase from 7 to 21 in Division One winners in this just our second year of A-Level results. But there were also 13 students who failed and disappointingly all except one were from the science area – it was our first year of offering some of the Science Combinations but the results were below our expectations. This has certainly caused administration, staff and students to reflect upon what is needed to ensure that the Science Combinations have success similar to the Humanities and Commerce areas.

On the other hand, we were pleased to note that we were highly ranked in Geography, English Language and Economics (noting that we are being compared with elite Government schools and highly selective private schools) and the staff have accepted the challenge of aiming for all subjects to be similarly rated over the next couple of years. The quality of our enrolment suggests that this should be possible.

The Form Six results were a good start to the celebrations for Edmund Rice Feast day – this year there were a number of changes that made the day a highlight for the year so far, something that it has always been.

The day started with the National Anthem and the School Song – the students sing with great gusto and both anthems are quite moving in their fervour - before a liturgy – including some ‘rap’ - that marked the story of Edmund Rice and its significance for this school named in his honour.

Then followed recognition of the students who participated in the Edmund Rice Awards Club for the past year – these students have learnt more about Edmund while putting the service of others into practice through visits to those with disadvantage including some in local orphanages.

The theme of recognition was followed by recognition of staff who have given loyal service to the school. While this will become an annual event, this year saw certificates awarded to those who have given five, ten fifteen or twenty years on the staff of the school – 28 in all. Students were very generous in their applause and staff recognised seemed very pleased with the reception they received. Further recognition will come at a staff function later in the year.

The morning session finished with the presentation by a current Form Six student, of a model of the school property – made in his own time with the occasional help of other students. It will stand in the entrance to the Administration Wing.

The afternoon session took another three hours and was highlighted by presentations from each of the O- and A-Level Houses – giving plenty of opportunity for the students to demonstrate their individual and collective talents. Audience interest was high throughout the eight presentations and occasional interludes from the school choir.

The final event of the day saw presentations made to the Division One winners in the Form Six examinations – 16 of the 21 were able to be present despite the short time between announcement of results and the celebrations.

The week after the celebration of the Feast Day of Edmund Rice saw four Reflection Days for the Form Five students – taken two Combinations at a time. Such days have also been held during the term for each class in Forms Two, Three and Four and are an innovation not previously planned at the school. The planning has been done by two volunteers using material from their previous experience and other ideas from various sources.

Themes for the days have varied but all are directed at enabling students to recognise the importance of being aware of themselves and others in the world in which they live. The recent Form Five days provided an opportunity to introduce these students, new to the school, to Edmund Rice and his significance for the school and those who participate in it.

One student, in her fifth year at the school, indicated that the day was very welcome “It was good to give time to recognising the importance of God in our lives while learning of how others have responded to the various challenges during their lives.”

Looking ahead, the final two weeks of May correspond to the final two weeks of the term. So examinations are the common element starting on May 18th with the first of the Form Four Mock examinations. Wednesday, May 20th is the start of the Archdiocesan Form Two Mock examinations and the Form One and Three internal examinations will take place in the final week.

Associated with the examinations is the introduction of a revamped Report Form – bilingual in both Kiswahili and English and in a form aimed at simplifying the writing processes for teachers.

After the O-Level finishes classes on May 29th, A-Level will have a further week of examinations before the school breaks for a four week break from June 5th until July 6th.

It has been as most periods here are, a busy time but one a little more relaxed than during the enrolment period – but there are still regular enquiries from people frustrated at the way things are done in government school though most have little choice in going to government schools due to cost factors!

For the past four weeks my nephew Gerard and his friend Lee have been present except when on their various adventures – a week on Zanzibar, a four-day safari and a six day successful trek to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro. They left this week for further adventures before the end of the month. They stayed at the School House with which they were happy, had occasional meals with the Brothers’ community and also had social contacts with the volunteers. Many of these will be finishing at the end of the month but will be replaced in early July by the next wave most of whom will be staying until the end of the year.

I have maintained good health though in the past week an upset stomach did slow me down for a couple of days. The break in three weeks time will be most welcome though I have nothing especially organised. Hopefully I will take five/six days for a retreat and then get into some hedge trimming, etc – and maybe a hit or two of golf……

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on May 17th 2009

Reflection 090414

2009-04-18T15:52:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 23

14/04/09

Two months have gone quickly! And yet I can’t say that there has been huge variety in the activities over that time – most can probably be summarised in one word, enrolment.

With the los later in the year of our Business Manager, Br Paul Follas – a New Zealander who has been here for the past eleven years – a sort of transition is taking place with some of the tasks he performed being transferred to other areas rather than to his successor, Br Robert Oloo. And that means that I have taken over enrolment at both O-Level, ie basically Form One but some in Forms Two, Three and Four, and at A-Level, Ie a complete new enrolment for Form Five! So more of that later.

Early February brought the National Examinations for Form Six – on this occasion, there were no rumours or outcry over cheating scandals. Our students were generally happy with their examinations but we will need to await another month or so for results. Our prediction is that our humanities areas will do well while the Sciences – remembering that it was our first year to offer Sciences – will not be so good. However, given recent enrolment patterns, we have no doubt that the Sciences will improve rapidly over the next two years.

The Form Six examinations were then followed by our internal examinations to mark the end of Form Five. Following correction, the critical meeting to discuss student progress was held with recommendation that about 20 not be allowed to continue – some had already self chosen this option prior to the end of the academic year. A couple managed to avoid the ‘cut’ but most accepted the fact that they had not attained the specified average!

At about the same time (ie the end of February), the Form Four National Examination results were published and, while we were pleased with our results, we then ready for the Form Five enrolment process which began almost immediately. For Form Four we had nine Division One results (the same group had none at their Form Two National Examinations), 21 Division Two, 51 Division Three 116 Division Four and only two failures and one absentee. This meant that almost all were eligible for Form Five enrolment but there are not enough places in government and private schools for them to proceed!

And that latter comment explains our situation when faced with Form Five enrolments – all students graduate (and hence leave) at the end of Form Four – so Form Five enrolment - even for the students of Edmund Rice (many of whom seek and get places at government schools because of the financial implications) - is for a completely new clientele! We had made changes from last year – no 387 interviews in one day!! – and these seemed to have been effective in spreading the load and putting a lot of the interviewing into school time. Still the first day or so were very hectic with students very keen to have their interview. Application is by Application Form accompanied by appropriate certificates and a personal interview of about twelve minutes except when there is a long queue!

Interviews started on February 23rd and have continued almost daily including Saturdays since. First offers were made on March 16th, second round on March 24th and third (and almost final) round on March 31st, one day after the start of classes! And applicants are still coming though it is almost impossible to get a place here now! We have had just on 700 interviews for the approximately 250 places available with extraordinary demand for boarding accommodation – we have extended our accommodation for boys by a further 46 but could quite easily fill double our current number of places. Some will only consider boarding – ‘no boarding, no interest’ and in that way help in the selection process!

Though many with excellent results at form Four would qualify for a place in a government school – offered on academic results only – many select a private school because of the poor reputation of many of the government schools. One can be sent almost anywhere in the country – and Tanzania is very large with overnight stops being part of many bus trips. Complaints include such things as no teachers, isolation, lack of facilities, study environment and school reputation. We do no advertising and have no trouble in attracting more than applications than we require. The profile of the current intake is interesting when compared to the school’s Form Four results (given above) – 20 Division One students, 40 Division Two, 170 Division Three and about Division Four only! Most of the Division One and two students are enrolling in the Sciences rather than the Humanities or Commercial areas.

We have maintained our current eight Combinations – students have to choose a Combination of three subjects rather than individual subjects and all must take a fourth subject, General Studies. Some, in the Science and Commercial areas, must also take a fifth subject, Basic Applied Mathematics if Pure Mathematics is not part of their Combination. We have added one further Combination – ECA (Economics, Commerce and Accounting) – and added a further subject for our Humanities students, Divinity which is a continuation of the O-Level Biblical Knowledge for Christian students though it can also be taken without such a background.

One of the hindrances within the enrolment process is ‘government selection’ – the heads of government schools meet (for up to two weeks) to decide which students they will offer places to and then publish the list – much the same as in National Examinations. Students have to take what is offered, find their own private school or wait to see what happens at the second round of government school offers. So we are faced with late applications (from those unhappy with their government school offer) and withdrawals (by those preferring the government school offered, often more for financial reasons than for any academic reason!). So the enrolment process has another week or so to go with government schools only starting this week, two weeks after we have started!

One of the advantages of our process this year has been the use of the computer to keep records of applications, offers and updates on numbers. This has been my contribution along with many if not most of the interviews – it helps to have a broad perspective of the applicants and their possibilities; many say that they want boarding only but when faced with the prospect of no place other than day are more than keen to accept.

Overall our population will be maximum with all classes from Form One to Six full – we have taken no new students in Forms One to Four for over a month though there have been many enquiries particularly from people who wish to repeat for Form Four – or Forms Three and Four - due to poor results at Form Four! 208 9basically 52 x 4) in each of Forms One, Three and Four, 250 (50 x 5) at Form Two, c255 at Form Five and 220 at Form Six – about 1350 in all with about 650 boarders and another 200 hostellers. It is easy to tell people that we are full.

One of the hardest parts of the Form Five enrolment process has been informing people, some previously from Edmund Rice and others new, that we do not offer sponsorship at A-Level, ie Forms Five and Six. Many of our finished Form Four students just expect that sponsorship continues and are somewhat surprised when we inform them that the sponsorship is directed to the O-Level students and will be used for the new Form One students in need of such. I have little doubt that many just expect sponsorship rather than see it as being helped by others and that such help should be shared rather than be directed to certain individuals who have no more claim on it than others. One or two of the sponsored students from Form Four, when asked what they had done over the four+ moths since their examinations, indicated that they had not done or tried to do anything to assist in meeting the family’s financial situation – admittedly it would not be easy to find things to do but many do so with effort. Most of our sponsored students have sought and taken places at government schools – A-Level is now able to do what it was intended to do, be a ‘pay’ school to support the meeds of O-level students.

So that is a fair sized summary of what I have been doing for the past couple of months – once Form Five enrolments – and we have taken a few Form Six enrolments as well – are complete, I will be ready for other things to do and there is no decrease in them in sight. Just a few other items of interest from the recent past:
 Officially e are in the ‘wet’ season but it has been very disappointing across the country and we are in for results of little or no harvests for the remainder of the year.

 Staff- wise, it has been fairly stable so far this year – probably a sign that our salaries are high enough to maintain interest and involvement as well as in comparison to government schools. There is no shortage of interest in getting a position here.

 We have recently reviewed and restructured our Positions of Leadership and Responsibility, - POLRs – with high interest in the positions. Appointments have been made and we will now have a series of meetings to set agendas for development with the Teaching and Learning programme.

 Similarly, we are in the process of restructuring pastoral care with the introduction of four House and Tutor groups within each – again it is a slow process receiving some opposition mainly because it challenges staff to get further involved with their students rather than staying in the comfort zone of teaching their subject (or subjects in a couple of cases).

 Our volunteers have continued to be a significant presence with there being 10 for most of the year so far. While the Special Programme at Form One has occupied four or more for much of the time, another innovation has been the development of ‘personal reflection days’ for the students at each level in O-Level, ie Forms Two, Three and Four. A couple of volunteers have written these programmes and conducted the days with each class – so far reaction from the students has been very positive and hopefully there will be further development of a second day for each level. We will also be developing similar programmes for ach of Forms Five and Six.

 As may be noted from what is already written, I do manage to keep busy – probably too much so in some respects. But there is much to do! And I haven’t yet resolved the issue of getting teachers – in particular – and students to have a global vision of education rather than a microscopic introspection that is all about personal interest and investment of time. It is certainly frustrating at times to experience a different cultural approach to the vocation of teacher!

 Health wise I have continued to be well – other than a recent one day bout of the flu’. Though I occasionally am concerned about lack of organised physical activity, I have no doubt that I am keeping reasonably fit with the day to day activity of all things school….

In conclusion can I wish everyone the blessings of the Easter season. We have just hosted about 1000 young people to the annual ‘Easter’ conference – it rained, the mud is everywhere but the overall feeling is one of the enthusiasm of youth for their faith and Church though at times I wonder if Church doesn’t expect too much in a very paternal model! I had better stop there!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on April 18th 2009

Reflection 090207

2009-02-07T14:31:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 22

07/02/09

I must start with an apology that I am rather late in putting in a further reflection – the last one was pre-Christmas and much has happened since then. And I must assure all that the delay in posting this reflection has had nothing to do with any health issues – I continue to count my good fortune in having had a marvellous run with my health and continuing to manage what I regard as a very hectic and, at times, somewhat stressful lifestyle – as will be seen by some of the following accounts and reflections on recent events.

Christmas was in the middle to latter part of our December break and the lead-up to the day itself was quite normal (though many fewer Cards both ways –apologies but the blog seemed to be a great tool for this purpose)! The day itself started with a morning mass (in English) – the midnight ceremonies start at about 10.00 pm and went to 1.30 or so all in Kiswahili!

There five of us for Christmas Dinner which started at about 1.00 and finished (if that is what transition to the next function means) at about 5.00. Then some of us went down the road to ‘Food Water Shelter’, an NGO run by five young Australian girls a number of whom had their first experience of Africa as volunteers at Edmund Rice! There we joined about ten other Australians ( a few may have been ‘honorary ‘ for the day!) for a few drinks and much chatter and a little singing – not quite up to the ‘quality’ of previous family experiences!

Most of my Christmas break was spent between lots of relaxing reading and an updating of our website – now available at www.edmundricesinon – though there still remains some refining of photos,etc. I will be updating the site after I get this reflection into the blog.

Final Profession The next major event was a novelty for me in recent years – the Final Profession of three brothers, all Tanzanians, took place at the school on January 3rd with about 400 in attendance. The ceremony was mainly in Kiswahili for the sake of the families who would have very little English and was an intersection of the cultures including both traditional African celebration with the more formal aspect of Final Professions elsewhere. It was an excellent day (and night with the celebrations continuing in one form or another well into the evening despite the 3.00 pm start!)and the school (though not quite at its best due to the staff on holidays for the December break) was again presented to a large number of people who know about us but have not visited before.

One feature of the day was the presence of almost every brother from the East Africa District – and there was a great renewal of connections following the similar feeling at the District Assembly in Nairobi in mid-December.

Start of School Two days later, school resumed with classes continuing for the A-Level (Form Five and Six) students. It is quite a difficult time particularly for the Form Six students who feel that they have finished the work and are anxiously awaiting the Final Examinations – which start this Monday, February 9th. Attendance at class is very inconsistent and the selfishness due to supposed stress creeps in; for example this week they were ‘too busy with study’ to do their normal chores – cleaning classrooms, etc - and left them to the Form Fives!

But the first week back with only A-Level was quite relaxed compared with the following week when the O-Level students returned for the start of a new academic year. We had already had the second round of Form One entrance examinations on the previous Wednesday with just over 400 trying to gain one of the remaining 80 places in Form One as well as sizable groups trying for the few places available in Forms Two, Three and Four.

A little diversion before continuing with the start of O-Level: Standard Seven is the end of Primary School and marked by three days of National Examinations – the following figures give much ‘food for thought’ regarding educational need in Tanzania! In 2007, 700 000+ students sat for Standard Seven. In 2008, 1 000 000+ students sat for Standard Seven with only 52+% being passed. Of these 520 000 or so who passed about 400 000 were offered places at a government school, the rest are told to find a place at a private school (at prohibitive cost to most families and generally with their own qualifying standards) and they are not supposed to repeat Standard Seven! A second round of offers of a place in a government school is anticipated but probably won’t take place until about two months after the start of school. Among the Standard Seven results information are these figures: only 18% passed Mathematics (a great start for secondary school!), about 34% passed English (the language of secondary education!) and boys generally do much better than the girls. So that is some of the background to the desperation of families to find a place in secondary education for their children – some may even beat the system by a change of name and redoing Standard Seven. But if there is no place in a secondary school, then there is no possibility of further education – so a large percentage of young people are cast out of the system at the end of primary school!

Back to the Hectic start to O-level! Since January 13th, the first day back for Forms One to Four I have had a constant stream of visitors most seeking a place for their child in one of our classes and many have been successful in being given an opportunity but not all were successful! One of the reasons for the places being available is the local custom of not informing the school about a non-return – you only find out if they are not here for more than a week after the start of school. I have this week finally put up the ‘school full’ sign which means that there are no vacancies available. The rollcall for O-Level sees us with over 800 students, 200 at each of Forms One, Three and Four and about 250 at Form Two(a ‘bubble’ in other places!??).

However the demand is not only for a place in class but also for most a place in boarding or hostel! Over the break we did some work on both O-Level boarding places and added another 50+ beds to help cater for the demand now that we are able to offer boarding for all year levels. We now have 630+ boarders from Form One to Six and another 200+ hostellers – that is to say that on any weeknight we have 830+ students on campus for food, study and sleeping! And still there is a waiting list composed mainly of the day students who would rather one of the options and are constantly checking to see if there is any ‘chance’ as they call it.

There will now be a short break from the hectic solving which starts with “I have a problem …” and frequently ends with brother having to admit that he “… is not able to help”! Form Five enrolment – we had over 600 applications last year will begin at the end of this month after the publication of the Form Four results (they sat their exams in early to mid-October!). One of the reasons for the delay is that the government school heads get a chance to decide who they will take prior to the publication of results! Many will not be happy with what is offered and will then seek places at schools such as ours!

Australia Day A break to the pace came on Australia Day – a normal school day here! But in the evening the Aussies and their ‘Honorary’ (ie the rest of the community here) gathered for a meal and then a viewing of the recently released movie ‘Australia’. It was a very pleasant evening with the meal outdoors and then the movie. Just one drawback – the movie finished at 11.45 pm which was not exactly conducive to a bright start to the next day at school!

Form Six Graduation Two days later the graduation of the Form Sixes took place. A 9.30 start to the official action with a mixture of presentations from the various Forms, speeches from various representatives and the presentation of the Form Sixes with their Graduation Certificates – 150+ of the 165 students in Form Six. Our ‘mgeni rasmi’ (special guest) for the occasion was Br Gerard Ellul, the District leader for east Africa who spoke to the students in English, Kiswahili and Kimaasai – the Headmaster his opening remarks in Kiswahili and the remainder in English! The formal part of the day finished on time at 1.15 (from a 9.30 start with no breaks!!) and was then followed by private celebrations with family and friends; the Headmaster visited most groups and was able to cut down on the number of pieces of cake he is expected to accept at each group. All were very happy with a day that went exceedingly well to plan.

And already we are well into February – a couple of other fragments might help the picture of life here:
 At the end of January we received our Form Two results for the National Examinations sat in early November. We are now in the top 11.5% (29th ranked – they are very much into ‘league tables’ here!)) of the 252 schools in our Zone – an improvement on 14.3% the previous year. Considering that many of the schools above us are small select entry, we are doing very well and that may explain our popularity.

 This week we had some excitement with the visit of a cobra snake, all two metres of it, to the campus – very frightening for a couple close to the action, scary for many and a lot of ‘fun’ for some of the students who ended its ‘reign of terror’. Later it was skinned as there will be some money for the skin!

 The year has started with many volunteers – ten at present from Ireland, UK, Canada, New Zealand and Australia - covering a good range of ages as well as experience. All seem to have settled in well and do mix well with each other and the locals particularly where they are living off campus but close to the school.

 Form Six examinations start this week and the students and staff will be very glad that they do! The build up has been slow (really over two years), the confidence has been high but the commitment has been hard for some to maintain. Many will complete seven papers (all three hours long) in the first four days – so they will be well spent by the end of it – while others (mainly the science students) have their examinations spread over two and a half weeks – they have three papers for each science including a practical examination.

 The coming week will also see an historic occasion which hopefully will have significance for the future. On Tuesday there will be a meeting of representatives from three educational enterprises under the management of the Christian Brothers, two from Nairobi and Edmund Rice from Arusha. The meeting will take place Namanga, the town at the border between Kenya and Tanzania and will be facilitated by two Australians Br Bill Wilding and Mr Wayne Tinsey. Is this a forerunner of another EREA – Edmund Rice Education Africa?

Enough for now – hopefully the next update will not be six weeks away nor anywhere near as long!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on February 7th 2009

Reflection 081221

2008-12-20T12:42:00.004+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 21

21/12/08

The school year has come to an end – at least for the Form One to Four students. The Form Five and Six students still have two months to go – the school year is never quite over! Though students and staff have gone, I have spent some time catching up on office work and in the planning for next year….

I have also been to Nairobi for a gathering of the brothers in East Africa – Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania – and a few others (from Zambia and West Africa) who are studying in Nairobi. There 46 brothers present and the theme of our meeting was ‘Living in a Cross-Cultural Community’ – I think the primary focus for me was being challenged not to live out of pre-conceived ideas nor out of one’s cultural ‘comfort zone’! It was also a good opportunity to meet many of the brothers of East Africa whom I had not yet met even though I have been here for almost a year – a sign that we do not get together but once or twice in the year nor do we travel a great deal.

The trip to Nairobi from Arusha took about five and a half hours (as did the return trip) in our own vehicle – there were six of us on board for each trip. There were many parts of the trip on alternative roads as there is a large (sponsored by the Chinese?) project being undertaken to improve the highway conditions between Arusha and Nairobi, a principal route for many adventurers seeking visits to National Parks and Mt Kilimanjaro.

With the school year coming to an end of sorts, it also marks the ‘coming to an end’ of my first year here in Arusha having arrived on New Year’s Day! While some recent events – the end of the school year, a visit from a group of young people from Perth (and including an Edmund Rice Camp), a visit to (Lake) Manyara National Park, planning for next year, etc - would merit some comment, it seems preferable to give a longer reflective view of the year – and really of the experience of my part in the life at Edmund Rice Sinon Secondary School!

While many marvel at the facilities of the school in comparison to those of other local schools, the school is still clearly underequipped in both human and material resources – classes of 50 for the most part, some sub-standard furniture including black chalkboards and very limited textual material as some examples – and yet it is the envy of most other schools! That just means that conditions at those schools are significantly tougher! One can only imagine the limitations such conditions place on learners!

Then there is the additional problem of understaffing that is the experience of most schools – presently as the government endeavours to broaden the opportunities for young people to access education there are not enough trained teachers who are committed to the young people – many are struggling to survive themselves and will move to a ‘better’ situation with little or no consideration for the young people they leave without a teacher, sometimes for considerable time. And the demand for education is huge given that the average age of the population is under 20! For the 1.2 million people in and around Arusha, the average age is 17.9 – that equates approximately to the age of our intake at Form Five!

And the demand for education is clearly shown in the numbers who seek admission – at our first day of enrolment ‘interview’ tests for Form One next year we had over 700 students apply and sit for the tests. We are now in preparation for the next day of ‘interview’ tests and are expecting several hundred more as well as good numbers seeking opportunity for Forms two, Three and Four – for the very few places available. In all of this, we have to be aware not only of the desire for secondary education but also of the fact that the less capable will find it difficult to find a place at any school; many young people do not access education past Standard Seven, the top level of the primary schools and cannot do so until they pass the National Examinations at that level. At each level of National Examinations failure can mean no further access to education – the government has legislated so that failure at Standard Four (primary) and Form Two does not deny progress higher but it is generally a sign that the ability to succeed at higher levels is lacking. A pass at Form Two requires an average of 30% across the nine compulsory subjects.

Once students access secondary school, they are constantly under pressure to progress through concentrated study and frequent examination. And this is the accepted way of education allowing very little opportunity to enjoy other aspects of schooling unless the school puts such activities into its programme.

It is interesting to note the demand also for boarding (7 days a week accommodation) and hostel (4 days a week (Mon to Thurs) accommodation) places – almost all applicants want accommodation because of the conditions under which they would have to study at home in comparison to those supplied by the school. Next year we will about 600 boarders and another 200 hostel students out of 1200+ students. And many of those 400+ would prefer accommodation at school if it was available. Such a demand for boarding/hostel places a further strain on the school’s operation with the need to supply meals – we feed all 1200+ at lunchtime on a school day – supervision and very basic accommodation – a bed and a place to put your personal things! Currently we use every available space and have added to possibilities for boarders during this year at both O- and A-Level.

The government is probably going to add to the demands for boarding at O-Level in particular as it implements the closing of O-Level boarding schools in an attempt to provide more places for A-Level studies with boarding being available. While there is sense to this move by the government, there is a currently unmet need to apply different entrance procedures to O-Level schools – government schools continue to offer places (not quite free!) to the academically more able students irrespective of geographical location and the distance a student may be from home! Many new secondary schools are being built but there is very little attachment to the local school required or given. Students move all over Arusha on a daily basis. If there are teachers, then they are generally happy at the school but will seek to move if teachers are not available - to say the least educational opportunity is very ‘fluid’.

Some comments upon the students may also be appropriate – at least before there is comment upon teachers and teaching! Students for the most part are cooperative, interested and demanding – cooperative in that they comply with directions given with respect to the operation and process of the school, interested in that they understand that education is an opportunity for them to provide for a better future than that experienced within their family (in most cases) and demanding in that they have a clear need for being taught and served by teachers. There is also a clear belief that everything they do – school work, sporting participation, school celebration, etc - needs to be rewarded by the school. It is not so much about ‘bribing’ students to perform as about rewarding effort as a basic expectation. Little seems to be done for its own sake or for the sense of achievement given by successful completion. I wonder that the ‘generosity’ espoused within the Mission Statement of the school is taken to mean that the school needs to be generous without there being an expectation of generosity from the individuals or group – somewhat a contradiction of what I would have previously understood and encouraged.

One aspect of student input that is to be admired greatly is the ability of students individually and as groups to go ahead with study, work, etc without there being the need for close supervision – such as the hour of staff meeting (during class time once a fortnight!) during which students are expected to be in their classes and studying quietly!

Which brings us on to the teaching profession! Many of the attitudes of the students are reflected in the practices of the teachers – particularly that of being rewarded for any extra duty even for an extra half hour of examination supervision! This is quite often coupled with the practice of being absent from school during the school day when one does not have classes! Given that the teaching load is comparatively light (18 periods in a 30 period week – ie 60%) and frequent requests for less due to the work required(??), commitment to the students seems to be a low priority for many! Though given significant preparation time (40%), much of it is not spent on preparation and often – without any qualms of conscience – away from the school. Fortunately, there are always exceptions and these are significant contributors to the life and spirit of the school.

And these comments are not localised to Edmund Rice – it seems to be common practice and hence extremely difficult to change. Similarly, it helps explain why many teachers are not committed to the school or their role in it as they continually seek better conditions – mostly salary – from the few schools that are able to offer such. I have certainly been surprised, even though I was forewarned, at the number of changes of teaching staff over the year particularly at O-Level and the lower end of it – by the end of the year, there were only two teachers within Form One classes who were there at the start of the year!

I think my further reflection on the attitudes of the students and staff are very much a reflection on the response to living within a country and culture that is basically very poor, reliant upon daily endeavour to survive and conscious that their condition is shared by the vast majority – education may provide a way out of the cycle but that puts the individual in a situation of self-preservation and often in competition with the other for the limited assistance available.

At the same time, there is a clear recognition that Tanzania has handled the divisions that may arise due to race and religion in such a way that there is general peace and harmony among the different tribes, religions, etc and an openness that enables all to live in harmony often being extremely generous to one another even though they do not possess much. An example of this would be the number of children within the school who have lost both parents and yet are supported by other members of the extended family or even by jus friends of the family who are willing to provide for them despite the demands of their own family members.

There is huge need much of which cannot be met, there huge desire for material wealth much of which is not attainable and there is huge need for relationships that are supportive and encouraging – this is possible because it costs less financially and is available from many directions…..

There is certainly much more that could be reflected upon but I do not see that it is wise to put it all into one document … and I do want to enjoy part of the brief break that now remains before school resumes on January 5th!

On January 3rd we are hosting the Final Professions (as Christian Brothers) of three men from East Africa, principally from Tanzania. That will be another opportunity for meeting the brothers of East Africa but there will be another 350 or so present as well. Preparations for that are well in hand but will also require some input at the local level….

So these holidays will be somewhat broken by various events and visitors – but we will make the most of Christmas day with Midnight Mass at midnight(!?) the starting point. It will probably feel different but I am very confident in the value of the messages of the Christmas season and these can be translated to any climate and any culture! I will try to leave a briefer Christmas reflection elsewhere on the blog!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on December 20th 2008

Reflection 081116

2008-11-16T12:53:00.005+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 20

16/11/08

An apology for the delay in making this reflection – on my three week cycle, it should have been last week and I had the best of intentions of doing it early in the week BUT …. One gets busy – as you will see from below – and some things just don’t get done! Until now – another quiet Sunday morning as most of them are after fitting in Sunday Mass, this week it was the English one!

As usual, a lot has been happening and the following will only be a summary of some of what has been getting my attention; some is a continuation from the last reflection while other aspects are new – and not necessarily in chronological order (that would be expecting too much of the memory and priority of involvements).

 The Form Four examinations finally came to an end on Monday October 27th with the completion of the Mathematics initially scheduled as the first of the examinations. The Form Fours disappeared gradually and many will not be any part of the future of this school – we might have 25 or so seek enrolment in Form Five sometime in March after they receive their Form Four results and after – particularly for the more successful students – they consider an offer of a place in a government school; they may be selected for a school anywhere in the country despite having given three priority choices on the Sel (short for Selection!) Form. They will join at least 500 students seeking a place at Edmund Rice – and I expect more applications and interviews than that. We will take somewhere between 200 and 250, about 140 of them boarders (70 girls and 70 boys) – the rest will have to be day scholars.

 Within a week of the conclusion of the Form Four examinations, the Form Two National Examinations commenced. The management of these is under the Inspectorate of Schools (as compared to the Regional Education Officer for the Form Four exams) and are not as important – nor are they treated as such – as the Form Four examinations; pass or fail, one can now (as from the beginning of this year) proceed to further education – previously you had to leave school as most did or repeat Form two until you passed, a pass being an average better than 30% across the nine compulsory subjects! You are also expected to start options which may be taken through to Form Four but only if you have continuous assessment from Form Two – so a Form Two student has to do 11 (that is eleven!) subjects across our 29 one hour periods in a week.

 And that has been another battle for me – coming to grips with a system that seems open to little change while setting strict guidelines for all students some of whom would do much better with a less constrictive system. So I have been in regular discussion with the senior staff here trying to deal with all the demands on students while trying to encourage staff and students to be pastorally oriented. We are having some success as our part-time counsellor will need to be full time in that role next year – but still has very little to do with supporting students struggling academically.

 Form Three and One students are still with us for the next two weeks and will finish on Friday November 27th after a week of examinations for each. Corrections and reports will be completed and be ready for collection on Friday December 5th.

 Forms Five and Six will have a week of practice examinations in the week of December 1st to 5th and everyone will finish on that day although the Form Five and Six teachers will have to do some corrections by the time they resume on January 5th! (the rest of the students and staff will resume on January 12th.)

 So the ‘Christmas’ break is just four weeks, some of which will be given over to a meeting with the brothers in East Africa and the rest is expected to be a break though there will be some planning required before January 5th. (Ooops! I am looking into the future rather than reflecting on what is and has been happening!)

 Our first examination for new Form Ones for 2009 took place on Saturday October 25th – no problem with numbers for next year, a mere 705 took the test this time … and there is to be another in very early January when a couple of hundred more (including some repeats) will attempt to secure the places of those who do not accept from the first examination. We have offered places to 267 (who obtained 52% or better) but many will not accept if they are offered ‘free’ (not really) places at government schools; the government has first choice of the better students, we end up with the ‘middle-of-the-road’ students while some government/community schools take most of the others – if you failed Standard Seven (ie top class in the primary system) you are not allowed to attend secondary school until you do while other students just don’t get a place because there are insufficient places available and that is after the government will send the government/community schools twice the number that they are equipped (physically and staff-wise) to handle! So a place at Edmund Rice is highly prized by most, particularly ‘locals’ seeking sponsorship!

 And that has been my other occupation in recent weeks – listening to the family stories (often from the student alone, sometimes from the mother (or grandmother) but seldom from the father – none with any English) of why they should receive sponsorship for a place at Edmund Rice. A typical story would go something like this: Maasai family, father with two or three wives, about 10 children in all with none of the older ones reaching secondary school (so this one is the hope of the family) and generally unemployed (or unemployable), a patch of ground, few if any stock, Christian (often Lutheran or Pentecostal) …. and with little means of support and even less to contribute a small amount for school fees.

 A few others come to plea for boarding or hostel accommodation and that presumes that they will be able to pay for it! Even some of our current students may not get boarding or hostel next year as we attempt to even out the allotment of places of the four years of Forms one to Four.

 So it is a stressful period as the decisions have to be made … and by the Headmaster with not too much advice or assistance other than the knowledge that we cannot support all despite some generosity coming from current (and I hope future!!!) sponsors though we are concerned that many who have supported for some time now wish to move on to other outlets for their charity – or are going to be effected by the current global financial situation. (Please note the request for sponsorship elsewhere in this blog!)

 One of the great things that we have been doing lately is at the senior end (A-Level Forms Five and Six) of the school where I have introduced a House system ( and it will be House tutor system for next year) for competition for the ‘Edmund Trophy’, kindly donated by the Edmund Rice Foundation of Australia. The trophy will be awarded “for the House demonstrating General Excellence over the Academic Year”. The academic results for mid-year have been awarded, sporting, debating/public speaking and talent show competitions are well under way. While it will be a shortened competition for this year, the Houses have caught on and been named (following my recommendation that they have a Tanzanian connection – historical or geographic for example) Kilimanjaro, Mikumi, Serengeti and Tanzanite. The teachers are a little mystified at the implications of a possible House tutor system, mainly checking as to whether that may mean more work for them! I am hopeful that we will also do the same thing, ie House system, within O-Level next year. But teachers will need more development in the concept than the students!

 Enough of school for now – but it is the ever present reality that one meets on a daily basis! A few other brief notes will show that one can get away from it for awhile!

o We have had some rain at last – two decent falls of about 25 point each; it helped settle the dust nut more is urgently needed for those who have planted a second crop for the year – and it normally comes in November/December. Here’s hoping. It will also relieve the water situation for the locals (and some of our volunteers) with no local water supply for just on four weeks – this means all water to be used has to be carried in!

o We have traded in one of our vehicles for another second hand vehicle – a Landrover much needed for the numbers who travel and for the roads which have already started to deteriorate due to the recent rains.

o I have at last used the golf sticks that came over in one of the containers – I played two games of nine holes each on the Arusha Golf Course, a very pleasant nine hole course with grass, but very slow, greens with a Perth man who is building a ‘children’s village’ for orphans not too far from the school. There is an active club (seemingly quite traditional but with many African members) and I would be hopeful of getting some more challenging exercise during the December break.

o I continue to enjoy excellent health though not so inclined to regular walking – the school day seems long and I am generally quite active during the day!

o I have certainly found more time for reading than in recent years but maybe I am doing too much of that and not enough learning of Kiswahili – my big failure for the year. But I am still very conscious of the need for it, particularly after the recent interviews with Form One candidates and their families ….. it will be a very slow process.

o At the end of October, one of my Novitiate group, Denis Philips died in Hobart after a long battle with various conflicting medical conditions. I had visited with him when home in June and suspected then that he would not see the end of the year. But it is still sad and a challenge when a good person dies after log suffering – a talented, gentle and generous man at peace at last.

That seems to be enough for now – hopefully I will get in at least one more prior to Christmas … and that will at least be my way of sending ‘cards’ this year….. Please feel free to respond in the same way!

This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on Sunday November 16th 2008

Reflection 081012

2008-10-12T17:44:00.006+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 19

12/10/08

Since the last reflection (on September 20th), life has been a little hectic with one event after another … so one way of reflecting is to go through the various events to give you some experience of the variety of activities that are part of this school and most others!

September 26th was the final game of the final game of football. Having been beaten by our opponents during the second round of games and drawing with them before the original final was played, it was expected that this game would also be tight. But this time we were able to put our best game on the park and eventually ran out comfortable winners by 5 goals to 2 after leading 3 – 0 at half time.

There was much jubilation and student behaviour varied between our best and worst though a presentation that lasted almost an hour did not help – students (that is, those who stayed to the final presentation) were again left to find their way home in the dark, not a favoured activity for many.

September 27th was AFL Grand Final day. I was able to listen to part of it – probably the good part up until half time though the poor goal kicking was very frustrating. Then I went off to do inspection of the boarding houses – as usual around 9.00 am each Saturday – only to get back to hear the bad news (for a Geelong supporter) that the Hawks had prevailed. Very disappointing and I am not too sure that I want to see the game now! That might explain why the one recording the game for me has had difficulties and the anticipated copy may not arrive!

September 30th, a Tuesday, was the day for Form Four Graduation – all of the photos on these pages are from the day just to give some idea of the venue, the process and the celebrations. We were able to start on time at 9.40 with our ‘special guest’ being a last minute replacement for the Regional Police Commander (also a Form Four parent but too engaged to be able to come and sending an Assistant Commissioner in his place). The day consists of presentations by each of the Forms – generally saying farewell and thank you to the Form Fours, speeches by parents (a father and a mother) of the Form Fours, the Board Chair, the Head Boy and Girl of Form Four, the Headmaster and the ‘special guest’ before finishing with presentations to each of the graduands – 198 in all! The Formal part of the presentations finished by 1.40 pm (a mere four hours had elapsed!) and that was twenty minutes ahead of schedule – something unheard of in these parts and as a surprise to most!

The formal part of the day is then followed by the informal/family celebrations – these consist of individual or small group gatherings of students with their families throughout the school; everyone else is fed by the school and that concludes the day for all except the graduands. Staff move from group to group congratulating students and being expected to receive a small piece of cake from the graduand to the applause of those present and posed for the camera. I did avoid getting overfed on cake! It was a very enjoyable day for all and much appreciated by the students. Interestingly enough most of the speeches were in Kiswahili – except for the Headmaster and the Master of ceremonies – and the various student presentations were very much in keeping with cultural activities including two dance groups.

Graduation was followed by two days of holiday celebrating the end of the Muslim period of Ramadan – nothing to do with extending the celebration of graduation. The interesting aspect of this is that the holidays are not declared until the last moment – it depends upon the moon and could only have been October 1st and 2nd or 2nd and 3rd but Tanzania still refuses to gazette them as some other Muslim/Islamic countries do – even the different branches of Muslims have slightly different days! They become part of the 24 or so public holidays as all Christian and Muslim feasts are holidays as well as the secular ones like this coming Tuesday (October 14th) which celebrates Julius Nyerere who may be described as the founder of modern Tanzania and is also being considered by the Catholic Church for further honours! A public holiday here means that banks and government offices (and hence schools) do not open but just about everything else does except strict Muslims would not operate business just as Christians wouldn’t think of operating businesses say on Christmas Day!

The Muslims do have one advantage over Christians in these celebrations (Idd El Fetr and Christmas) which are somewhat compared as the key days for celebration as the Muslim days come every 9 or 10 months (and hence can occur twice in some years!) whereas Christmas only comes once a year. Our strict Muslim staff and students did fast (no food or water during daylight hours) for the thirty days of Ramadan.

So for last week, classes were only held on Monday and Friday with a number of students taking Friday off as, being hostellers, they would have been coming and going from great distances. But on Friday we were able to prepare the hall, the venue for Graduation for examinations with desks for 203 students being needed – and they just fit! And that then brought us to this last week the first week of Form Four National Examinations.

It started for me on the previous Thursday – that’s right, on one of the two holidays - when all Headmasters, Examination Supervisors and Invigilators (the other examination supervisors!) had to meet for examination information. Every instruction was in Kiswahili – even the twenty minutes demonstration of how to open the examination envelopes – though all the instructions to students were to be in English and lasted for three plus hours. We were then given a soda and a ten minute break and ushered back in to the cramped venue to wait the allotment of supervisors and invigilators – some were still waiting four hours later!

During examination time – which are spread across three weeks with the occasional day when we don’t have any examination – I leave school at 6.20 am each morning, pick up our Supervisor, and arrive at the Examination Distribution Centre (or ‘strong room’) at 6.45 to pick up the day’s examinations, the police woman who has to be on duty at school all day (to ensure that the school follows proper procedures w.r.t. examinations) and the return to school picking up our invigilators on the way. The morning exams start at 8.00 am (and generally go for three hours) while the afternoon exams star at 2.00. After the exams are over for the day, I then do the reverse trip to ensure that the exams arrive at the ‘strong room’ for safe keeping. Now all of this detail is to show that we (Tanzanian officialdom) are serious about the security of examinations!

BUT! On Monday morning, the first exam was postponed for three weeks due to a leak of the examination being discovered – it has been rescheduled for three weeks time at the end of all the other examination. (An official at the examination headquarters is not too worried about mathematics being leaked “as 97% of students fail it anyhow”! Is there a problem here or am I missing something??) The afternoon examination went ahead though a leak was also suspected. And that has been the case with all the exams – they are all out there in the public domain and seemingly available to most students without too much effort – some of our students have become very secretive and protective of any suspected interest by teachers!

Despite the belief that leakages of the examinations abound, they have proceeded though Thursday saw a change. I received a phone message to be at the ‘strong room’ at 12 noon. I duly arrived as did other Headmasters of the Arusha schools and then waited for two hours while nothing happened – except some Headmasters gave up and returned to their schools. Eventually the officials in charge of the exams arrived, unloaded some boxes, sorted them and then called each of us in to be given the new examination for Geography for the afternoon – this was about 2.30, thirty minutes after the students had already started on the original paper! (The Headmasters who had left were rung and required to attend for the change of examination – so they found out even later!) By the time I got back to school, the students had been writing for 40 minutes and were somewhat disgruntled at having to start all over again. We gave them a short break and they restarted the exam at 3.22 finishing in semi-darkness at 6.22 but not being dismissed until 6.50!

One of the other aspects of the examinations is the ‘practical’ examinations for each of the Sciences – Physics, Chemistry and Biology. Students must work individually with the equipment supplied while those waiting to do the practical – it is not possible to supply all of the students with the necessary materials or rooms at the one time – are kept in a room without access to any materials even those for another subject and supervised by the policewoman and some of the invigilators. In the case of Physics on Friday, some students were ‘locked up for nearly five hours! I am investigating as to whether our supervisor is too strict or just keeping to the rules – but whose rules. Our teachers, some of whom are also invigilators at other schools - are suggesting the too strict interpretation in the students not being allowed access to study materials.

So!!!! The examinations are an eye-opener and many are very sceptical of the outcomes given the circumstances under which they are being held. Most I speak to are ‘ashamed’ – that is their term – that their tendency for dishonesty is so blatant and they see it as a blight on the country in the eyes of others. It is not the first time such leakage has happened – and it seems to happen at the upper echelons of the structure. And it can be so blatant! On September 29th, a week before the examinations, in my office I was offered access to the examinations by two well presented men with brief cases. I was so shocked that I failed to ascertain the actuality of the offer or any other detail – I informed them that I would inform the powers that be and they hurriedly left! With a little more thought and time, I may have checked whether they were real or bogus but it now seems that they may have been quite real!

One of the outcomes of all of this examination situation is that we may have to devise our own examinations for judging entry to Form Five next year – this year we were able to use the Form Four results as an indicator of ability in the particular combinations. I am not sure that that is possible next February - March! Form Four students will finish exams (and hence school) on October 27th and Form Five will not start until late march and possibly April – how is that for a break when there is little prospect of employment and certainly no opportunity of ‘holidays’ as we would know them. Form Four is often taken as the end of schooling and only about 40 of our students will seek to continue enrolment here. Those who do well will hope to get into a government school even if it is far away and may not have a ready or consistent supply of teachers – it is however much cheaper and that has to be a deciding factor for many!

Other than these events, the past couple of weeks have been good for me. I continue to enjoy good health although I am not getting as much exercise as I should – but wandering around the school and getting involved in the many school activities certainly keeps me on my toes. I am able to keep up a little with news of the ‘outside world’ but there is enough happening at the local level to keep me active and alive. Community wise, we have been doing some extensions and next year will have six brothers in community and seven for a good part of the year …..
This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on

Reflection 080920

2008-09-21T12:06:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 18 20/09/08 It is four weeks since the last reflection, three hectic weeks of school and one, this last week, somewhat less hectic because it coincided with a mid-term break – and it has been most welcome just to get one’s breath before a final rush particularly at O-Level (Forms One to Four) with classes, examinations and reports to finish before the end of November – Form Four will be finished by October 24th! A-Level (Forms Five and Six) will be in class until the end of the first week in December and return early January for their final rush. So the end of year one is in sight!
The three weeks before this last week were a combination of examination sessions for Forms Two and Six – both termed Mock, ie practice but with some import if a student were to miss the final examinations – and important sporting contests! Both our netballers and footballers made their way through to the grand finals (as we would term them) through very narrow victories, 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out in the football. The finals were rescheduled three times over ten days and then there was not enough time for the football to be completed after being 2-2 at full time! After much confusion it has been suggested that it be replayed at the end of next week – that will mean a three week grand final! The netballers were beaten in their final but second is an improvement on the effort of last year. While the games have been fine, there has been some concern with crowd/mob behaviour – more after the game than during! Some try to tell me this a cultural thing – but I have made some objection to such behaviour and put restrictions on the number who may attend with the aim of teaching appropriate support and calling for an improvement; the response of the students has been good!
The past month has seen a turnover in the volunteers who are assisting the teaching and learning programme with a number leaving – some after almost a year and others much shorter, even coming for their ‘summer’ holidays (obviously from the northern hemisphere) but being replaced almost immediately. Similarly there have been many enquiries about next year and the numbers are looking terrific, maybe even ten at the start of the year!
Today's reflection is somewhat less than maybe expected but I am in th eprocess of trialling a new method of transmitting them - and other aspects of the time here - through blogging as suggested by one of my neices!
So a small start maybe preferable to a large experiment that may not be too successful. I'll be interested in noting the responses!

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080824

2008-09-21T12:05:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 17 24/08/08 I think the 2008 Olympic Games finish today – that is I know that they have been going on and have accessed some results from the internet … BUT they are not of any real news hear! That is, no Tanzanians (from a very small team) have done well nor has the news bulletin or television given much space to the Games other than mention of significant efforts, Bolt and ? what is the name of the American swimmer? … actually, what is swimming? It has been a very different experience to the saturation, adulation, etc that marks sporting events and achievement in Australia! One could well ask “who has it in the right perspective?” My guess is that Australians will be a little dissatisfied with outcomes considering expectations and particularly chagrined that the British won more gold medals than the Aussies – mind you, it is about time they beat us at something isn’t it? The next Games in London will be a real challenge …. But they always seem to get better!! Of much more import here has been some grading of the road outside the school, some levelling and a great improvement … but it is only for about 200 metres before the trip to town resumes its normal uneven and uncomfortable ride. We are not sure why our section has been done and remain hopeful that it is a sign that the rest of it may be undertaken soon. At least our section will be good until the next rains and then deterioration will begin again! The current weather is in change mode from cool nights and cloudy days to 24 hours of clear weather and warmer days – this should last for the next couple of months. This means that dust will predominate in both school and house. There is a regular dust storm each day while the primary students (half of the 1300+ pupils playing all over the ground) play games, mainly football after school finishes for them at about 1.30 – the early finish means that has to be provided! Our senior (Form Six) students are doing Mock Examinations , modelling the end-of-year exams in February in all but the practical work! They are very imported and treated as such particularly because they may become important as a guide if a student misses the final exams. We had a novena (for success, not necessarily reward for effort) and the numbers at morning mass increase! Once they are finished, Form Two will have their Mock Examinations having already had some Mock Examinations (in May) set by the group of Catholic schools and the following week we have end of semester exams for Form Fives. Then the students take a break of one week (while teachers complete corrections and reports) and then the final rush will start for the O-Levels (Forms One to Four). December will be the end of year break with school for A-Levels to resume on January 5th! We are currently in a period of transition with our volunteers – by mid-September we will have had a complete change except for one volunteer. The biggest loss is that of a New Zealand lady., Debbie Frank, who has done marvels with establishing our library (now open six days a week for student study and access to materials) as a very effective asset of the school – there would be very few schools with anything like it! Continuing it in current fashion will be a good challenge for the local staff whom Debbie has trained. We are awaiting the next influx of volunteers and things for the start of next year look terrific – I think we may have twelve on site by mid- to late-January. Speaking of volunteers, we recently published by internet only a new Newsletter directed to previous, present and future volunteers and some of our sponsors. I will attached a copy with this reflection for your interest … and reaction. I continue to have good health and am much energised by lots of the activities of the school … but there are frustrations. A little outline of some of the events – in no particular order – from the last couple of weeks might help clarify the picture: 1) Yesterday I took seven Form Five students to the Final Profession - as a Sister of Charity of St Charles Borromeo – of one of the other Form Five students! The day began at 11.00 am and was close to finishing when we left at 4.00 pm! With over an hour’s travel each way, it made for a long day. 2) Our Netball and Football teams – schools only have one of each! – have been playing the final games of the second stage of the roster season and have been successful in moving into the semi-finals (for the top four teams) next week. There was need during the week to spell out some aspects of sportsmanship – for players and supporters - that were lacking even in a culture where winning and losing is very serious (reminds me of other places I have been). There was a marked improvement on Friday. 3) We are attempting to do some appraisal and interviews with our teachers – only to find out that any sense of making appointments is an invitation not to take any action. So we are now proactive in making appointments for the teachers – it is yet to be tested as to whether they will come … on time! 4) We have finished with our tutors – Form Six leavers who look for ways of making some money to assist with their university study - for this year. Now here remains an evaluation of the system – many of the teachers seem to think it is an invitation not to attend class and to get their corrections done by someone else. You may sense that I am not that impressed with the implications of the system. 5) I have similar concerns with student teachers who are also used by the teachers as teaching substitutes instead of being supervised and advised. We have had eleven student teachers in recent times and the quality varies greatly – an example, write from a book for the hour period! 6) And, while on teachers, there is the problem of getting some of them to stay with the class they have – some take a break and leave the students to it! Recently I tackled one teacher as to why he was not in class and he explained to me, with examples, that he was doing preparation!!!!! 7) On the other hand we are getting somewhere with some of the teachers who are willing to be challenged and to adjust. For them teaching is about students, not just getting paid because they call themselves a teacher. There are some interesting “interviews with the Headmaster” coming up! 8) The other struggle I am having at present (this a past, present and future activity!) is coming to grips with two graduations for the Form Four students (and then for Form Six in January/February) – one for Dini (or religion) and one for Academic recognition – this latter seems to be the more important as it recognised all of the students together but is over shadowed by the Dini one! For Dini, each religion group organises a function consisting of a service in keeping with the religion followed by a lot of speeches and then a feast for the graduands and the other students from that religion – over the year money is collected and pays for this graduation. For Academic graduation, the school and families (of the graduands) assemble and, after some speeches, each student is presented with their graduate certificate. Families then gather around the school for their own celebration. I have challenged the system, not because of the dual system but because of the expense involved – and have tried to suggest that they should have some sense of doing something for the disadvantaged rather than themselves… I am ‘obviously’ out of my brain to challenge what others do!!!!!!! August 30 and September 30 are the two dates – hopefully I will enjoy both even if uncomfortable about the underlying principles! 9) In the meantime, I am writing and rewriting application forms and related documentation as we are about to launch the selection processes for next year’s Form One …..

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080803

2008-09-21T12:03:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 16 03/08/08 The weather has been quite cool, especially for the locals who do not like the cold at all; it is generally quite cool late in the evening until mid-morning and then quite pleasant for the major part of the day. We have had a little rain – light and for an hour or two at most. I am told that we are about to move into some windy weather and then it will be warmer – but nothing like the heat that many believe is common here. To me the weather is ideal, never too hot nor too cold with some variety. We are now well into the academic year for both O- and A-Level with the priority being the final examinations for our Form Four students in October. The other year level to have a National Examination, Form Twos have to wait until November for theirs. We have a month’s break for most of December and will then begin again in early January with the Form Sixes to have their main examination in February – so we are always in exam mode considering that each of those year levels has a set of ‘mock’ examinations that are treated almost as seriously as the actual examinations. So life at present is probably as stable as it gets – I am still learning new things about the school, the local community and about the people with whom we deal. Of particular interest last weekend was the first meeting of the School Board – we started late by one and a half hours and then went for just on four hours straight before the end (around 3.00 pm!). The operation of the Board is different from those I have experienced in Victoria or Tasmania – for one thing, it generally operates under government regulations (ie as for government schools) which don’t always concentrate on the priorities or on the planning for the future; for example, last week we spent considerable time on the lack of discipline in the students (and this after we started 90 minutes late!), the purchase of a school bus (or busses!) to solve the lateness of staff and students and getting more information on matters that were already over and done with! For interest I will include the Headmaster’s Report that I gave last week – there were also reports from the two Deputy Headmasters, more on school events than on looking forward! HEADMASTER’S REPORT 1 Student Numbers: FORM GIRLS BOYS TOTAL 1 90 143 233 2 85 113 198 3 87 120 207 4 75 125 200 O-LEVEL 337 501 838 5 86 152 238 6 60 105 165 A-LEVEL 146 257 403 TOTAL 483 758 1241 PERCENTAGE 38.9% 61.1% 100% It would seem to be reasonable that into the future the number of students should plateau at 1200 with approximately 200 at each year level; for Forms One to Four this means that we will have four classes of 50 in each class! For how long will such numbers be appropriate? For A-Level we currently offer eight Combinations – CBG, EGM, HE, HGK, HGL, HKL, PCB and PCM. With 200 students, each of these may have a maximum of 30 students. BUT there is the possibility of offering one or two more Combinations! 2 Staff Numbers: ROLE FEMALE MALE TOTAL FTE Teacher 6 39 45 44.6 Non- Teacher Academic 4 2 6 6 Non-Teacher Clerical 1 3 4 4 Non-Teacher Manual 5 14 19 19 Non-Teacher Accommodation 3 4 7 7 TOTAL 19 62 81 80.6 Tutors 2 7 9 9 Student Teachers 5 6 11 11 Volunteers 4 2 6 6 NOTE: Tutors, Student Teachers and Volunteers are not included anywhere else in the staff numbers. Staff numbers are sufficient to cover the current teaching load; however, there area some areas of school need that may require further – or even new – attention. While we have extended the role of the School Counsellor time-wise, we have not yet catered for the career needs of students nor the need for a campus minister to work at both O- and A-Level. If class sizes reduce into the future, there will be need for additional teaching staff with no noticeable increase in income! 3 Boarding and Hostel: FORM GIRLS B GIRLS H BOYS B BOYS H TOTAL 1 28 26 45 52 151 2 27 34 32 50 143 3 5 54 - 67 126 4 2 40 - 50 92 O-LEVEL 62 154 77 219 512 5 74 - 82 - 156 6 53 - 56 - 109 A-LEVEL 127 - 138 - 265 TOTAL 189 154 215 219 777 Boarding – and thus Hostel – will continue to be a difficult issue for the school, much more so at O-Level than at A-Level. For A-level we simply have 140 places for both boys and girls and will eventually aim to have 70 of each at each year level. Accommodation for those who are day students is not a simple issue of staying with the family or friends thereof. Some students will take shared accommodation with other students close to the school without any expectation that the school has any responsibility for what may happen outside of school hours when they are not on school property. For O-Level we will be similarly limited to about 140 of each – this means just 35 girls and boys at each year level; the demand is much greater! The increase in boarding through its availability to Form Three and Four students will limit the available hostel accommodation to about 70 for girls and 170 for boys assuming current spaces remain available. Because we offer boarding and have a sound reputation fro providing well for our students, enquiries for places with boarding provision will come from further away – we will need to be aware of the importance of supporting our local families, but they may need to accept that boarding and even hostel accommodation will be limited. The other aspect of this matter that needs attention is that it is not realistic for families to expect that boarding and hostel accommodation are part of sponsorship – they would need to be accommodated and fed were they to be residing at home. 4 Issues for Administration: Student Numbers - as discussed above Boarding and Hostel provision - as discussed above The Professionalism of our teachers We are fortunate that we are able to maintain the full complement of teachers despite the shortage of teachers across the country as the effect of free primary education swells the numbers seeking secondary education, both O- and A-Level. However – and it is noted from the Report of the Inspectors earlier in the year, we are still in need of educating our teachers in the appropriate skills for proper teaching and learning to take place. One need is to move from being a teacher of a subject (and for many it is just one discipline) to the teacher of a person! The institution of class teacher period has started this but there is still a long way to go. Another notable need is the necessity of showing students how to learn through proper use of study/homework time – there is too much expectation that students will spend considerable time in learning from notes taken in class and too little application of organized and structured learning times. These are skills with which many of the teachers would not be familiar as their learning has been along traditional lines. So the process of change will be slow. The introduction of interviews with the Headmaster, appraisal and subject and year level meetings will also encourage change and a team mentality within the teaching group. Facilities – Maintenance and Development While it is widely recognized that this school has good facilities for its staff and students, it must also be recognized that considerable effort is needed to maintain the current facilities while also hoping and planning to add to both the current curriculum and the provision of additional services for staff and students. As an example of this further provision, we are in the process of increasing staff access to computers – but we then need to skill staff in the use thereof. Sponsorship There is little doubt of the continuing need for the school to support those families that are disadvantaged with respect to the basic needs and thus sponsorship must continue to be available. However there is also a need for the school to move further towards self-sufficiency – partially as a response to the decreasing level of sponsorship (due to many long-term supporters withdrawing their support and the added difficulty of finding replacements) and partially as a recognition that into the future this school will need to be self-supporting. The difficulty with such developments is the danger that we will not be able to support the many needy families within our local area and this must remain a priority. The current reputation of the school with respect to its facilities and provision of teachers for all areas means that there will be an increasing demand for places from the wider population especially with respect to boarding and hostel places. Such enrolments will help in the move to self-sufficiency but hinder the support for local families. Indeed a fine balance between the two will be necessary. Thus the question of sponsorship becomes a key consideration with respect to enrolment and the view of some that we are even the cheaper alternative to government schools if full sponsorship is available. The fact that sponsorship has extended to boarding and hostel makes us doubly attractive! I believe that we are fast approaching a situation in which full sponsorship is not the way to go, especially with regard to boarding and hostel provision – were the students to reside at home, there would be associated food and accommodation costs. Thus I am tending to believe that we offer sponsorship specifically for education purposes – ie in the area of tuition costs – but have an expectation that families will also be making a contribution in this area as well as covering the costs associated with food and accommodation. This may enable us to extend our assistance to more families while offering less to some currently sponsored students. There will continue to be the individual cases where fuller support is offered but I have concern that those who go through school under full sponsorship are being set for a big shock when such funds are no longer available to support further education possibilities – we still have past students who approach the school for sponsorship in tertiary studies! 5 Vision for the Future The further aspect of planning that needs attention is the whole area of planning for the future. While a huge amount of development has taken place over the past 20 years and in particular over the past 3 or 4 with the introduction of A-Level, we are now in a position to plan for the future of the school with the following steps as part of the process: · A comprehensive and current Vision and Mission Statement · A full outline of the current school – this is in process · An understanding of the financial processes of the school income, expenditure and budgeting · Curriculum planning for the future – co-curriculum and extra-curriculum: what additional subjects may be possible? · Facility planning – with the possibility of additional subjects, what additional facilities would be needed? · Maintenance of the current facilities · Staffing needs into the future – for teaching and for student support in areas such as counseling, careers advice, tertiary possibilities, etc There is still much for a Board to plan and initiate if the school is going to provide adequately and substantially for its students! 6 What other aspects of the work of the Headmaster and Board are there to be included in the vision for Edmund Rice Sinon Secondary School? As you can see, there are a number of issues needing fairly important consideration but they did not receive such attention last week as the Board members (only 7 of 11 attended including myself and two others who were attending our first meeting. I am very hopeful that at the next meeting we can concentrate on planning issues rather than review of past events! I have spoken with the Director of Catholic Education (who is a member of the Board but was not present this time) and he seems very supportive of development for the Board members – even if a new Board will be in place as from next April. One other aspect of life here is Sunday Mass in the local parish – as per this morning. I have been attending this in place of an English Mass later in the morning! In general, the experience reminds me of the poems of “John O’Brien” of Around the Boree Log fame! A brief run down on this morning’s experience is fairly typical – remembering all the time that everything is in Kiswahili and I have made very little progress in this direction! I left at 6.35 am for the church which is situated right on top of a hill with a great view of the surrounding country. Everyone walks to church – except the parish priest who delivered a visiting priest for this morning’s liturgy – and most arrive on time for the 7.00 am service which normally starts on time (only 5 minutes late this morning). We had a visiting choir from a neighbouring parish as well as the young choir that normally sings at this mass. The church is packed with many standing – men sit on the right and women on the left as a general rule and we have separate collection boxes for the men and women to encourage competition between the two (and thus a larger collection rate)! Most hymns are long and sung with much movement by the choir – and the congregation joins in with the basic sections of the liturgy. There is lots of incense and the sermon goes for at least 20 minutes – the Liturgy of the Word finished around 7.55. Then followed prayers of the faithful, collection (everybody comes to the front to put their gift in the respective box), two processions of gifts, etc – so that it is another 15 or so minutes before the Eucharistic liturgy starts. This is celebrated quite normally until communion (though some of the singing is protracted) such that communion is generally over by about 8.35. Then come the “trimmings” including two communal prayers and the Sunday notices – this morning the notices took 22 minutes and included several pages of donations! Mass finished about 9.10 just slightly longer than the usual version. The locals are very patient and absorb all of the ceremony and additions with seeming calm – probably a lot more so than myself!! I continue to be well and maintain a busy schedule even if I do not have as much exercise as previously – one gets very absorbed in the variety of life experiences. The return of my computer from Melbourne has been a distinct asset as I spent much of the last week catching up on correspondence…. and thus resume correspondence with many of our supporters and the good number of volunteers who continue to seek opportunities to get involved here – the numbers for next year are looking really good. Enough for now – the next reflection will not be as long!

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080712

2008-09-21T12:02:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 15 12/07/08 Well … I’m back! Is it back from? Or back to? Both are applicable. I have certainly had a good break and did enjoy my time in Melbourne – the opportunity to catch up with almost all of the family (three generations who enjoy getting together as we did at Mary and Peter’s – many thanks) was great as was the relaxation available living with Bill and Kevin at East Melbourne and the occasional game of golf at Medway. The little matter of signing on for the pension was handled quickly through the expertise of Tony P – I even found the tax file number that I have had for about 18 years and never had use for! Being so far from Arusha meant that I was able to get fully away from the business of the School and the various bits and pieces that could have interfered with the holiday break – I even left my corrections until I returned. Return I did – the travel went quite smoothly and I arrived back in Arusha on Thursday July 3rd after an overnight stay in Nairobi. During my stopover in Singapore I checked my e-mails to find that there had been an incident at our neighbouring NGO, “Food Water Shelter” – I think it better to include a summary of events as I heard it upon my return: “Recent Incident at Sinon: The purpose of this note is to clarify any impressions or misgivings about a recent and widely publicised (Australia included) event here in Arusha. However it must also be noted that it is brief and written second hand as I was not present at the time. I arrived back in Arusha on Thursday after two days of travel from Melbourne – on my one-hour stopover in Singapore, I checked my e-mails and received one from the Deputy Headmaster, Br Vincent, to say that a volunteer, Darren, at Food Water Shelter had been killed during a robbery there on Monday evening. This was certainly a shock for me as I had met him on a number of occasions and had been in discussion with Frank O’Shea as recently as the end of last week about contact with Darren upon my return. I received little further detail during my overnight stay with the Brothers’ community at South C but was given the basics of the incident upon my arrival here in Arusha….. Food Water Shelter is an NGO group based in Australia with the target of doing something for the people of Tanzania – building and establishing a children’s village for some of the orphaned and homeless children of Arusha. Their base was a house and units quite close to the Brothers at Sinon – we have had excellent relations with them including gatherings and visits both ways. As a matter of fact the recent visit from Albert Street Productions spent time with Food Water Shelter and would certainly have met Darren who was the leader of their group here and had been here as chief of construction work for the past eighteen months or so. Sometime after 9.00 pm on Monday evening a gang (at least 15) gained entry to the compound – they overwhelmed the watchman and some locals – and then attacked the building where the safe (payday was the next day, so they knew that and the location of the safe – it gives the appearance of an ‘inside’ job!) was but it was also the room of Darren and Rebecca. Darren apparently tried to resist their entry and shots were fired blindly through the wall hitting Darren in the chest. They wrecked the room, accessed the safe and left. As per their management plan, phone calls were made to a neighbour and to Br Paul Follas here. Alarms were raised with many locals including brothers and watchmen from here arriving to offer assistance but the robbers were nowhere to be seen. Darren was rushed to hospital but unfortunately died from his wounds. I believe both Paul Follas and Vincent Mallya were exceptional in the way in which they helped immediately and with subsequent follow-up. Locals were equally shocked and supportive. A small ceremony was held yesterday morning before my return, the Food Water Shelter volunteers have disbanded for the present , returning to their homes while Darren’s body will return to Australia with Rebecca and another volunteer tomorrow. Embassy (various nations are involved in volunteering) support has been very noticeable and a number of press releases have been made…..” One little story to indicate the closeness of such events to one’s existence: when I dropped Frank O’Shea at the airport on the previous Saturday morning, he mentioned that Darren was looking forward to my return as Frank had told him that I was a keen card player, particularly Canasta which was also a special interest of his! While things have settled down here – we have continually received offers of sympathy from locals – it is disturbing to note that only a couple of arrests have been made; the police seem to lose interest very quickly if things do not go well in investigations – they have lots of other things to do! However the incident has been a reminder to monitor our own security arrangements, even to checking out the shot gun! While such incidents are rare, particularly the involvement of firearms, there is always the chance though we would be better secured than most! Over the last weekend of the holidays I corrected my students examinations and I was quite pleased with the spread of results – now that I have passed that class over to a new teacher, I am hopeful that some of the students will still want to come for assistance as it is needed. The start of school on Tuesday was marked by a number of challenges – a new teacher resigned on Monday (and was replaced by Wednesday!), another new teacher wanted to renegotiate his salary having been offered more by his current school – he decided to stay where he is when I indicated that I would not get into a bidding war (and will be replaced on next Monday!) and two teachers did not arrive – both are expected on Monday having offered excuses and apologies but only after being rung to find out where they were! So my hopes of a good start with all the teachers present was just that – a hope! However most of the students were on time and it has been a good start for them – assemblies were held with A-Level (F5&6) on Wednesday and O-Level(F1-4) on Thursday and we held a Parents’ Meeting for F5&6 this morning. However, the week has not been all plain-sailing as over the holidays an anonymous letter was lodged with various local authorities – education and the police – and with the media – print and radio – making accusations of improper conduct by a couple of teachers with some specific students. While it is strongly suspected as a spurious document, it has had to be investigated by the police and local methods are not overly thorough or confidential – so far the police have cautioned the press about any publication of the material; there would be no chance of such in Australia, but here the laws about defamation allow for publication of very suspect material…. The matter continues – to the detriment of those involved especially the few students named. So the first week back has passed quickly and with the usual amount of the unexpected and the challenging – but it is good to be back! And I am hopeful that we will have another good term or part thereof until mid-September when we will get a one week break! In the meantime there will be more ‘mock’ examinations (taken very seriously) and lots of other happenings!

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080531

2008-09-21T12:01:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 14 31/05/08 This will be necessarily short as I am in a period of transition – coming to the end of the first half year of O-Level (Forms 1 to 4), end of the first quarter year for A-Level (Forms 5 and 6) and preparing to make a short trip back to Australia. As such, the last two weeks have been a period of reflection on the past five months with a view to planning and prioritising for my return and the start of school in early July. The closure of the term takes about two weeks with some Form Four students finishing last Friday (May 23rd) and the Form Five and Sixes finishing next Friday (June 6th) based upon examination schedules. While being very directive and strict in respect of procedures, and with the students being very intense in preparation, the post- or between-examination processes are some what loose – basically lacking in teacher direction and initiative. But fortunately the students are well-motivated to do well! Employment of staff has continued to be a priority – at this stage I have all the teachers needed for the start of next term. But there is always the distinct possibility of teachers making changes – and without any notification – so the ‘fingers will be.” for the holidays. Hopefully a salary increase and improving confidence in processes will be seen as assets by the teachers. We have no such problems with staff – there are still enrolment enquiries every week, almost every day! The demand for hostel and/or boarding from current students is even stronger! But with little possibility of change unless we change our current approach, a matter to be taken up with the Board which is still yet to meet, but trying to do so. One the key reflections about the life of a student (or a staff member for that matter!) comes from the frequent seeking of reward for almost any activity – leadership, sport, academic, work/cleaning, etc – and very little sense that there is any concept of taking on things as a service to others. So a key theme in recent meetings with both staff and students has been that of “reward or service”? This may end up being a very cultural aspect here and, if it is, it certainly makes for interesting communication with the students and staff. Being close to the end of the page, it is appropriate to suggest the current priorities or needs for next term/semester: Language – the need for me to speak some Kiswahili is very prominent and there will be need to give it high priority. Exercise – maybe it was the weather or just time organisation, but I do need to get more exercise; with drier weather ahead , walking in reasonable weather conditions will be more possible. Student Contact – having been teaching almost half time (to cover the loss of staff) I look forward to a lighter load which will enable more time for visiting classes and meeting with students, particularly at O-Level whose academic year is half gone. Staff review – it would now seem that we have the opportunity for staff appraisal and discussion though it will still be ‘slowly-slowly’………..

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080517

2008-09-21T11:59:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 13 17/05/08 Undoubtedly the highlight of the past fortnight has been our celebrations for the feast day of Blessed Edmund Rice on last Tuesday. And, instead of writing copious words, I will try to put the spirit of the day through photos – with some brief comments. (This is a bit of a trial in response to the request of some for some photos of the school and events – if the internet can handle this type of communication, more photos will follow!) The day consisted of two parts – the blessing and opening of the new Science Rooms in the morning (with the Form Five and Six students) and a full school assembly in the afternoon for the celebration of the feast day of Blessed Edmund Rice. All celebrations here are marked by singing and not just singing but singing with movement! And the senior choir, guided by two students are very successful in getting attention and presenting And then there are the inevitable speeches! But on this occasion our special guest, the Regional Education Officer declined to do so through lack of preparedness – and that left a little more time for the Headmaster to talk on the lessons from Edmund’s life as well as the importance of science and scientists to the future development of the planet ... and then a few other bits and pieces. Not too long – about 17 minutes but here they are too polite to time it (as has been done elsewhere and on other occasions!). The new rooms will be a great asset not only because of their modern set-up but also because they will free up two other rooms (both of which will need to be renovated) for the O-Level (Forms One to four) students to do practical science. The challenge with the new rooms will be the capacity of the teachers to take an interest in their upkeep as well as using them for the teaching of their subjects. I am hopeful that we will soon employ a laboratory technician – again the challenge will be the ability to do the work in cooperation with teachers rather than as servants thereof! The special guest gets to do the ribbon cutting – four times on this occasion to satisfy a camera crew from Australia who are in the process of making a documentary for the Brothers so that they can advertise their missionary endeavours to the Australian government and the general public – and the unveiling of the plaque. The special guest has the title of Regional Education Officer which means that he is the highest ranking government official in the area with respect to education. He is very supportive of the school and this year enrolled his son in Form Five. Though he did not speak on this occasion, he promised to come back and speak with the students on various educational issues. The morning finished with an inspection of the new rooms with some of the senior students performing experiments. The rooms will be ready for use in the next fortnight - just in time for the mid-year break; the whole school will be in recess from June 6th until July 8th thus giving me the opportunity to return to Australia to claim the pension which will then be forwarded here as a contribution to the support for the brothers in East Africa. We took an hour’s break between the morning and afternoon sessions – to have the special lunch prepared for all (over 1300) for the day. Surprisingly all were assembled and ready for the planned one o’clock start to the afternoon. However the good start did not prevent the afternoon from being very lengthy, eventually finishing at around 4.30 – one hour overtime! But most of the students stayed until the final act – some, mainly day students, who have to travel home by bus (minivan), bicycle or foot, left after 3.30. There were no complaints about the length of the day – it just fitted in with the ‘African Time’ concept! The programme commenced with two plays. The first was a Form Three play interpreting some parts of the Edmund Rice story – performed with much gusto and a somewhat liberal interpretation of aspects of Edmund’s life but certainly illustrating that Edmund is well known even if not completely understood. A Form Six performance interpreting one of the books in their English course then followed – though African in content, the play was performed in well spoken English. The Headmaster was interviewed By the Head Boy and Head Girl from O-level) on his understanding of Edmund Rice, the man, and then the experience of Edmund Rice, the school. He was also asked about the highlights so far and for a few hints on the studying of Mathematics! We took the opportunity – following the recent publication of the Form Six results to acknowledge the achievement of seven students who received a Division One pass – all seven attended and were pleased to be so recognised. Our results were quite reasonable given that it was our first Form Six class – 7 Div Ones, 42 Div Twos, 57 Div Threes (all of the Ones, Twos and Threes (about 78% of our students) are eligible for a university place – but there are not enough places for them to get in!) 23 Div Fours and 7 who failed to get a Division award. Nationally we were about the middle of the 313 schools that offered Form Six! Not too bad for a first effort!! Interspersed throughout the afternoon were performances from our singers (our new music teacher has only been with us for three weeks but was able to produce some excellent work from the junior students – he teaches music via the voice!) and dancers – the latter for this occasion were required to do traditional dances and were able to practice for a couple of days beforehand. The Maasai are the most colourful but have the least attractive dancing! The final acts for the afternoon was a play from group belonging to the anti-corruption club - - they reflected on the effects of corruption on their society and of the need for all to be aware of its dangers and to adopt non-corrupt practices! The final dance was from a group who include flame throwing! A warm end to a great celebration!

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080504

2008-09-21T11:58:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 12 04/05/08 Well! What else does one do upon becoming a pensioner? Write further reflections upon the latest experiences among the challenges of life in another culture – probably better stated as life being lived among various new cultures! After four months, life is settling down but without being at the ‘normal’ stage nor without new and different experiences such as the following: · Having waited some considerable time to meet the Archbishop – he is the ‘owner’ of the school – and allowed good time to make the appointment, I ended up in traffic that was extremely slow making me late and then found that the traffic jam was caused by the closure of the road just before the entrance to the archdiocesan offices with no parking spaces available! And then I tried an alternative route only to be further frustrated by the traffic jam! Eventually, being at least thirty minutes late, I gave the appointment up and have put off the meeting with the Archbishop to another time! · While on traffic - and thus vehicles – we are basically housebound at present; one of our two vehicles has been off the road for all but a couple of weeks since the beginning of the year and now our ‘old reliable’ (has done over 300 000km!) is showing signs of its age having had a couple of problems – currently with our effundi, fortunately a local who gives our vehicles some priority; it will be back with us soon. · And talking of traffic, it is worth commenting upon our road – or what is left of it! The good rains have continued (the best wet season for many years) and, though the rain is very welcome to the local farmers and householders, so has the deterioration of the road – it is now so bad that our second container from Melbourne cannot be brought into the school – it will be left somewhere in town until the weather allows for some improvement in the road! The conditions have also meant that I have had some four wheel driving experience – “slip sliding along!” · School has settled down now that Form Five and Six enrolments have (almost) concluded. My teaching of Mathematics is very challenging, not because of the Maths but because of student expectation about how they will be taught – one told me that they prefer to be taught by Africans rather than Europeans! I am also trying to assist with the Form Six class as we have not yet been able to replace the teacher who notified us rather late that he was not returning – there has been no response to our latest advertisement for a Mathematics teacher, nor for a librarian or experienced library technician or a laboratory technician – there is little training available for such positions as these latter two! · And then during the week (it being the end of the month – and thus, after being paid) our senior Chemistry teacher left after telling the students and some staff members – but not any members of the administration. And this within two weeks of all teaching staff being given a significant raise in salary. So I am now looking for a senior Chemistry teacher also! · Community-wise we continue to entertain the occasional visitor, brothers including Tony Shanahan for visitation and others, generally volunteers. As a community we are much more present with each other than in my recent community experiences – we have very few evening commitments (meetings happen during the day, generally during school time!) other than an occasional night out together! · Having spent some time encouraging the A-Level students to ensure that they take physical exercise, it is pleasing to note that some, especially the girls, are taking aerobics early in the morning while there is now a team competition – called the Clem Cup!!! – for a variety of sports including football, volleyball, netball and basketball. There are still some who spend every spare minute at study! ‘Balance’ is not a term with which some would be familiar or in agreement! · Our internet connection is certainly a bonus – it not only allows for e-mail connection (a principal means of communication) but also gives access to various websites. Most Saturday and Sunday mornings I am able to pick up radio broadcast of AFL – the Cats continue to win despite form that is below their best. · Another pleasing aspect of recent communications has been the number of people interested in volunteering their services during the latter half of this year or the early part of next year. They come from various countries – Canada, UK, Ireland as well as New Zealand and Australia! Just keeping track of the proposed movements, etc certainly adds to the variety of roles for the Headmaster. · One of the difficulties with volunteers is their visa classification – if they get a visa at the border, they are not eligible “for paid or unpaid work”! A ‘voluntary teaching’ visa obtained before they leave their home base is the preferred visa. The threat of regular unannounced visits from the local immigration authorities means that we have to be ready for changes in arrangements. Despite the severe need for qualified teachers, the government is clearly averse to having foreigners take on such roles – Kenyans and Ugandans regularly apply for teaching positions, seemingly well qualified but without a work permit that they would like us to obtain for them – and we are very reluctant to do that and thus to take them on!! · Currently I am still waiting for my own ‘work permit’ – hopefully it will come through this month. The application was sent off in October last year – bureaucracy moves very slowly here! So much for the issues and challenges ... life continues to be interesting........

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080420

2008-09-21T11:56:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 11 20/04/08 For Karibu 2007 Participants: You may or may not have heard that Karibu 2008 will not take place – the uneasy political situation in Kenya would seem to be the main reason behind the small number of applications and the early decision of the organisers to take a break for twelve months. Dates have already been pencilled in for next year! So, I thought I might take this opportunity of doing the regular (weekly or fortnightly) reflection to do it specifically for the Karibu 2007 participants who with the participants of previous programmes become a principal source of support for the many immersion sites that we experienced. It will be important for many of them that your support continue – especially for the many sites in Kibera and the other settlements where much of the unrest has been in and around Nairobi. I know that a number of you have continued your support and I am sure many others have also – it is not really my business to know. But I do want to encourage you to continue ...... My own experience since January 1st when I arrived here in Edmund Rice Sinon Secondary School (hereafter ERSSS!) has been varied across the many areas touched on in our inputs and conversations – education, culture, religion, etc. When we were here late last July, we experienced just a little of the school’s culture. Since early January, I have seen the context and the challenges of the school on a much wider scale – it is in the day-to-day operation that one best experiences the local situation and can then extrapolate it into the wider community. ERSSS already has a reputation for what it is trying to do – why else would local dignitaries seek (and expect) special consideration in the best sense of a ’favour for a favour’! Our enrolment of Form One students towards the end of last year and at the beginning of this year saw a continual lne of enquiry for places – some few will even seek a place despite being offered a place in a government school – the academically best are offered places in the government schools (supposedly free but often the extras may make them almost the same cost as ERSSS!), the others have to find their own schools, some like ourselves are quite missionary in outlook while others, generally called private, are for-profit in the operation and therefore only for the wealthy! In each of our year levels One to Four we have over the ‘normal’ 200 (four classes of 50) with Form One crowding in 230! Similarly the demand for boarding or hostel is extremely high and we are not able to offer either of these to some. Nevertheless we have a weekly population of some 700 to feed and bed – it reduces to just 0n 400 for the weekends – I am including the Form Five and Six boarders in these numbers. The enrolment of Form Fives, only recently complete, has been another extraordinary experience – over 500 enquiries being reduced to 230+ places ( there were only 160 last year) with many accepting a place despite having to find accommodation in the ;local area. The ratio of girls to boys is about 1 to 2 remembering that there is another Catholic school offering boarding for girls. As in the case of Form One enrolments, the academically gifted as known from their Form Four external results are offered places in government schools – many do not accept these as there are many stories of having to travel far to schools that may be very poorly equipped (some occasionally close for a couple of weeks when food stocks run down!) and without teachers! With the explosion of education following the introduction of ‘free’ primary education, many schools lack basic facilities and there is a clear shortage of teachers with training – if you have completed Form Six studies, you are ‘qualified’ to teach Forms One to Four while the completion of Form Four ‘qualifies’ you as a primary teacher up to Standard Seven the final year of primary school! Seeking teachers has been a constant for me since January. While we may pay a little more than the government schools, many of the teachers are on the look out for the higher salaries paid by the private schools with which we cannot and will not compete financially. Since Easter we have had a 25% changeover of staff! Some have left during the first three months while two have just not returned after the Easter break. Getting teachers is one ting and then getting them to be professional is the added difficulty! They have a load of 18 periods (in a 30-period week) and will want to be paid for any additional work out of school time – but feel that it is Ok to be absent during their preparation times! We are learning together and some are certainly keen to be interested in the students not just the subject ( generally all are specialists in one subject) they teach – but it is slow work. Without making this too long a missive, I will mention a couple of other aspects that might be of interest: We are having a very good wet season – the best for some ten or more years; the problem of dust becomes the greater challenge of mud! Last Saturday we had 120 points of heavy rain – but still 150 parents turned up for O=Level Parents’ Day! Our road from Arusha is now a lot worse than it was last July – any ride back to town (remember last year) would be more horror than excitement! The talents of the students are continually on show – and most do like to be part of the action. The ‘flame throwers’ have already gone through their presentation. The number of families seeking ‘sponsorship’ continues to grow and our ability to assist is limited – a number of long term supporters are coming to the end of their sponsorship efforts. We continue to develop the school’s facilities – a very useful staff room was completed at the end of last year and we are about to finish two science rooms for A-Level – thanks to our Australian supporters (particularly the schools) and an anonymous European NGO. The min-farm of the brothers’ community – pigs, chickens, turkeys and geese as well as the guard dogs (all German Shepherds/Alsatians) – continues to prosper and is a source of some variety in the local menu! Our students are also into social service regularly visiting one of the local orphanages for young to very young children. Two other orphanages are to be built within a kilometre or so of the school, both by two different NGO groups from Australia – and quite modern in their design and concept. The presentation of ‘poor Africa’ that was made by the A-Level students last year continues to be a theme in student discussion –Tanzania continues to be in the world’s very poorest countries. Kiswahili is an important aspect of communication outside the school – mine has not improved much and I can survive very well at school as there is a high demand fro the use of English in all aspects ..... but I will need to improve my Kiswahili as i move around the local community and meet parents and family of the students. Enough for now – I hope all are well and continuing to enjoy their challenges while maintaining good health. God bless.

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080407

2008-09-21T11:55:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 10 07/04/08 Today is a public holiday – a very regular occurrence here with about 25 in the year! No one seemed to know too much about it until late last week – it is honour of the first Vice President to Julius Nyerere the founder of Tanzania’s very stable (if not always honest) socialist government. So I have a little time for reflection which was not so available over the weekend – Saturday was a day for the of Form Six students and was not too weel attended but still occupied much of the day. I am still learning that events are scheduled but not overly planned – and it will take time to change that! “We have always done it this way” exists very strongly here. It is two weeks since Easter Sunday but it is time that has gone very rapidly with the return of the )-Level students on Tuesday after Easter and the start of A-Level on last Monday. The latter has been marked by the arrival of some 220 Form Fives and about a dozen new Form Sixes. The demand for Form Five places has been extraordinary and we have squeezed in as many as we can – the subject combination system here limits the intake somewhat. Students must choose a combination of three subjects and we offer eight combinations covering Biology, Chemistry, Economics, Geography, History, Kiswahili, Language (ie English), Mathematics and Physics in these combinations CBG, EGM, HGE, HGK, HGL, HKL, PCB and PCM. So Geography is our biggest subject with History close behind! Students have been arriving over the past week – being here for the first day of classes does not seem to be a priority for some. Of course the returning Form Sixes are the ones with the laissez-faire attitude despite it being a very important year for their future. We are also starting to get students with very good Form Four results due somewhat to a growing reputation and the government selection system that can send students to the other end of the country sometimes to government schools poor on conditions and poor on teacher availability. Is it any wonder some prefer to go somewhere where there is seeming stability and good facilities. Speaking of stability leaves with me an uneasy feeling as my experience so far indicates that any reputation for stability lies with some of the staff who are committed and content – even if they would always like a little more remuneration. However there is another group of staff who want more remuneration and will move without hesitation (and generally without notice!) if more is offered elsewhere. We are in a difficult situation – many teachers see us as a private school (some of which are run for profit as businesses) and thus expect us to match the salaries of such schools some of which have exceedingly high fees. Others (maybe a minority) accept that we are a missionary school (supported by outside individuals and agencies) with a responsibility to be open to the poor and underprivileged. We manage to pay slightly more than the government schools but are generally about 25% below what the next rank of’ private’ schools pay. Many teachers give very little acknowledgement of the facilities and conditions under which they operate – everything is about getting more even if there is little professional accountability! It will take time to change this! A an indication of the instability among staff, after the Easter break we had seven new teachers start – some to replace departing staff over the first part of the year and others to assist in distributing the teaching loads equitably – and in the past week two more staff have left, one before he was moved on and the other for professional advancement through a university scholarship. Hopefully I will be able to replace them in the next fortnight. We continue to work with staff on being professional in their teaching and learning – but some are very stuck in old modes and processes. An example – “let us have a ‘master of discipline’ who would monitor all matters of rules and regulations – we only want to teach”. The recent introduction of a ten minute morning pastoral care period has been a challenge for many! So much for the hands-on of school matters. My other highlight of the past fortnight was attendance at the ‘zonal’ conference of Heads of Schools (TAHOSSA). It was held at a place called Babati just over three hours from Arusha with more than half the time being over extremely rough road – my driving skills get tested on such roads. The meeting was in both Kiswahili and English – so I understood parts of it but presentations can switch between the two without much notice. All the minutes of previous meetings of the zones and regions and the finance report (in which the poor payers are named!) are read out in full despite having been handed out to each participant! In the two days i heard about an hour of what might be termed challenging educational input! Fortunately this group only meets twice a year on top of more district and regional meetings. My Kiswahili study has not prepared me for such meetings but (I am told by others) it is important to attend as education policy, etc is generally revealed by word of mouth rather than in writing! Upon my arrival back after another horror stretch of road, the car I took was taken out by one of the brothers and lasted less than 200m before the last bolt on the drive shaft gave in – it seems i was mighty lucky to get back. Fortunately our effundi (repair man) is close by and we will be back on the road later today. My other new experience over the past fortnight has been the return to the chalkboard (literally) to teach Form Five Mathematics – without a text book for each student (I have 40+ students spread over two combinations!). So preparation is about preparation of materials as well as preparation of theory – for those who are familiar with my teaching, the ‘notebook’ has returned! So far the students are interested, seem capable but are exceedingly quiet – getting answers or questions from them takes some energy. This will improve, I believe, in a relatively short time. A tutor who has attended some of the classes and is a Form Six graduate from another school found my style of teaching novel (and very interesting) and very different from what he was used to – write on the board and students copy it down and learn it – dialogue between teacher and student was not the norm! Of course missing a couple of classes to go to Babati was also not appreciated – by teacher or students! By the way – the container one! It has arrived and thus so have my clothes, books and papers. No sign of the golf clubs but we will sort the container later this morning! Fortunately my bag and books were right at the front! Its arrival is very timely as we are almost ready to move into our new science rooms – much of the equipment for these is in the container (I hope). One of the other tasks for the near future is the appointment of a laboratory assistant to organise, clean and supervise the use of our four science rooms (two for A-Level and the two new ones for O-Level). We will need to train the person as there does not seem to be any preparatory courses for such. These reflections should be enough to indicate that I alive and well and living in my own ‘reality’ show! There continues to be a new revelation every day and each time the new challenge requires some reflection, some conversation with the ‘old’ hands and some planning and implementation – often for the next time such things occur! Life in community is very supportive and the playing cards come out on a regular basis – no Canasta yet but eventually will happen. Access to football by radio (via the internet) is intermittent and oddly timed (afternoon games in Melbourne are over by 9.00 am here!). So the night games are middle of the day here and do make for interesting listening. I think I got 8 right in the tipping this week – for a total of 21 in the first three weeks!......... It is time to finish.

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080323

2008-09-21T11:54:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 9 22/03/08 The Easter break has arrived, but not quite peace! The school has been taken over by the YCS (Young Christian Students) of the Archdiocese and we have 800+ young people all in their school uniforms here from last Wednesday evening until Sunday evening and possibly a few until Monday morning! It is a spiritual odyssey through the Easter triduum with constant public address delivering music or preaching from about 7.30 am until well into the evening! So that is the current situation; the previous three weeks since my last reflection can be covered reasonably briefly and allow for some more general impressions of my experience of Tanzania so far. Two of the three weeks saw the completion of the Kiswahili Beginners Course – I found myself getting somewhere with the grammar and structure of the language but have not done so well with the orals! Two aspects of the latter are my concern – one is hearing what is being said (accents occur here as well as elision by those familiar with the language) and the other is learning the vocabulary. The struggle will continue and further assistance will be needed! The course finished on a Friday evening and the next morning saw round two of the interviews for Form Five entrance – another 160+ arrived. We were a little better organised and managed to get through by about 2.00 pm. Of the first round of c200 offers only 90+ had been taken up. So, from the waiting list from the first round and the second round, we had to decide on which 100 or so would receive new offers. It took much of Saturday evening and Sunday to get our list and then there was the preparation of materials ready for the rush on Tuesday. Monday was given over to interviews for new staff – we had 11 appointments (30 mins each) to go through and then allow some time for a couple of others who had been told to come but were not given a time! It was an interesting experience as we were looking for seven new staff mainly for the start of A-Level but also a couple for O-Level due to some rearrangements of loads and subject allotments. Next Tuesday we start O-Level with a timetable that will be common with A-Level, basically six one hour periods but with the addition of a Class Teacher period of 10 minutes to start the day and five minutes to finish it. Staff loads here are quite generous – basically 18 in a 30 period week! (That has been a diversion from the interviews!) Having decided our preferred employees, it was then left to the Headmaster to inform the preferred candidates of our decision and then to have each of them in again (on Wednesday and/or Thursday) to discuss their teaching and related matters, principally money. It was interesting to note that it was the young almost beginning teachers who wanted to ask for more (even if it meant that they were being treated better than similarly experienced staff members – there seems to be little sense of collegiality or equity!) At this stage I have successfully employed six of the seven and indicated to the other that I would be offering the position to another applicant! Given that we have had no students or teachers here for the week, it was the busiest four days that I had spent here. The arrival of Good Friday was a real relief. There will still be some catching up to do when O-Level resumes on Tuesday and I also need to do some preparation of materials as I return to the classroom to teach some Pure Mathematics at A-Level as from next Monday! From all of this it is fairly obvious that community life has been pretty normal and regular. Fortunately we continue to fit well together and share the responsibility for cooking with little difficulty. One frustration has been the delay in the arrival of my baggage – put in a container in Early November! My interest is now in which will arrive first – the Work Permit (papers forwarded in late October) or the luggage (containerised in early November) – there is even a chance that the second container (sent in January) may beat both of the above!!!! GENERAL IMPRESSIONS (after 11+ weeks!) The words that occur to me are local, struggling, casual, innovative, grateful and open. They may seemed very mixed when referring to the same people but that is exactly how I have seen things so far – one can be buoyed greatly by one response while the last or the next could be in stark contrast. LOCAL When one’s life is very much a struggle for survival, it is little wonder that one gets involved in one’s local community without too much consideration of what is happening in the wider local community and even more so what is happening on a world scale. The local community is one’s support and experience – hence the students become very attached to the school community for that is the ‘local’ community when the school is in session – we have over 700 students eat and sleep here each weekday evening. STRUGGLING Tanzania is among the world’s poorest countries and there is a mentality resulting from the nation’s struggle to develop that is part of the people’s view of their existence. Many conversations start with the statement ‘I have a problem’ with an implication that it has got beyond the person and ‘you’ are going to be the solution! Many have adopted a mentality that the sponsorship provided so generously through our many supporters is readily available to anyone who can convince one that their ‘problem’ is insurmountable but will be easily solved by an influx of ‘free’ finance. Hopefully I am not being too hard or harsh but i have learnt very quickly that such readymade solutions only lead to further expectations that help will continue unabated. In responding to requests for assistance, I believe that one has to insist that there is no full support – assistance is offered with an expectation that one will continue to make a personal contribution to help one’s problems. However there is little doubt that many live well below the poverty line even within a society that is well down on resources and opportunities. Assistance and support will be needed for some significant time yet. The other aspect that adds to the struggle is the government’s emphasis on assisting those who have rather than those who do not have - for example, the government is about to issue its offer of places in government schools – it makes its offer to the most able academically and leaves the rest to seek a place in mission/private/non-government schools such as ERSSS (we have just been informed that 55(out of 189) of our Form Fours from last year are being offered places in government schools – and they would be our top 55 academically; a few will stay with us but most cannot afford not to take up the government’s offer even though some will end up in poorly equipped and poorly staffed schools!) Many of those not offered places are also not able to find a place in any school, partly because there are not enough places and partly because they cannot afford anything other than a government school – and they are not free! Hence the struggle to improve oneself through education! CASUAL When one sees the intensity with which the students study, it is probably quite unusual to suggest that there is a certain casualness in the approach to things – unless there are strict guidelines and some adherence to them, things will only happen when one is ready or when other things are out of the way. The students (and maybe not the staff so much) will tell us that they appreciate the structure and policies of the school and they see them as a way of achieving what they are seeking – an education that will give them a chance to get ahead. ‘African time’, when applied speaks volumes for the casualness in approach and that is seen in the absolute acceptance that things do not normally happen when they are scheduled – the school is different! The further consequence of the acceptance of things happening ‘in time’ is the unquestioning patience that it brings! There seems little concern that things are delayed – and it is not by just a few minutes - and an acceptance that that is how things are. It is not about to change for that is the way things are – and it is an African way of life, very foreign to the foreigner! INNOVATIVE Many are certainly blessed with ingenuity having a gift for making do and making do in very different ways. While one will always see some sitting around waiting for things to happen, others are busy making efforts at adding to their meagre living – many are into local business which means they grow or buy some items and then endeavour to make a small profit by selling to others! Our students are quite innovative in the way they make the best of the opportunity provided them, some studying through lunchtime, after school and even wanting to go later in the evening. But it is not a balanced innovative approach – other priorities can often be forgotten or just ignored. GRATEFUL I have little doubt that people are most appreciative of the efforts on their behalf – from a little curtsy from the Maasai mothers to repeated expressions of thanks. There is an understanding of the value of the support that is available even if at times there is the expectation that it will continue forever – some even hope/expect that we will extend the sponsorship to them when they move to another school! The students are hugely respectful – authority seems to have that effect on some, while others are keen to progress and they see that happening through cooperation and hard work. Despite my own limited inculturation through very limited language skills, I am able to enjoy the depth of local culture as seen in our school celebrations and Kiswahili liturgies – the English liturgies I attend are very similar to those back in Australia though the singing is generally better and the churches are much fuller! OPEN I suppose this comes particularly from my dealings with the staff. My first impressions were that school was a means to finance but that did not mean that one should arrive early (ie before the students) or leave after school (some were on the Daladalas – kamikaze minivans - well before the students!). However with regular staff meetings (during school time!) and some detailed explanation of options/changes, there has been an acceptance that we have an obligation to the students and agreement to try some things differently. The support has almost been unanimous –at least within my hearing! Other aspects of openness will still need some further work – such as letting one know that you are leaving the staff for another position. Fortunately there are others who pass on the information when they hear about it – they do believe that students should not be left without a teacher. Students were initially reticent with the new Headmaster but that did not last too long – one is always greeted and students are pleased to note what one is doing on their behalf. With only a little amount of encouragement students will open up on any topic, not always well informed but certainly prepared to have their say; discussion is also a strength of African life but gets significantly abused when one is put behind a microphone – time is of no consideration. The students can and will be brief when limits are put to them. I find working with the students and staff, though always with a hint of challenge, a good experience and seen o reason why it will not continue to be so! CONCLUSION So that is a reflection after a couple of months – I have purposely avoided a couple of areas such as African spirituality, community life and education administration, not because they have not been part of the experience but because I think they and I need a little longer to experience each other. I think that it would be obvious from the above that the experience has been one of pluses and minuses and certainly given much food for thought. I certainly intend to continue to reflect and write ... and share from time to time.

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080302

2008-09-21T11:53:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 8 02/03/08 It is two weeks since the last reflection and they have been two very different weeks – the best way to demonstrate this is to outline the major events for each week. While they may not be many in number, they do contrast the various paces that life here can have. 18-24/02/08 On the Monday, we had the first Form Six students to finish exams – they went quietly knowing that others still had exams to go. Each of them had to sign out, meaning that they had to complete all necessities with respect to the return of materials (Library, Graduation Robe, ....) payment of fees, etc before they could be given their Leaving Certificate, a national document verifying their completion of Form Six. Their results will not be available for some months! On Tuesday, a champagne breakfast and a dinner in the evening marked my Golden Jubilee of joining the Christian Brothers were separated by a reasonably normal school day – I am still having to say ‘No!’ with respect to people seeking enrolment – with a number of unannounced visitors. Wednesday was unremarkable other than my visiting the Form Four classes to warn that non-attendance at class was not an option and the preparation for the Form Five interviews became more immediate! On Thursday I spent time going through the applications for entry into Form Five – it gave me a sense of who were applying and what they were applying for! (More on this when I get to Saturday!) I also completed a revision of the Staff Handbook – it will now go to a couple of others for further editing and comment before being published for staff after the Easter break to coincide with the start of the A-Level (Forms Five and Six) academic year. It is now 68 pages long and that may be too much - but it is comprehensive in that it does cover all areas of the school, not just matters for the teachers. On Friday I met with other members of the Leadership Team about the Form Five interviews – given that there were to be some 250 applicants arrive for interviews (no appointment times!), I was conscious of the pressure to hurry through interviews and maybe miss important things .... Later in the day I added two more to three of us originally down for interviewing! I also did a couple of interviews in advance – one on religious grounds and the other with a connection to a staff member – and also to test out our interview sheet, something I designed to make sure that the interviewers all covered the same material. Saturday was in many ways a shambles! 285 turned up for interviews most of them at 9.00 am, the starting time. Given that we were finished interviews at 4.00 pm basically without a break means that we each interviewed 57 students (only one was accompanied by a parent!) means that each interview took approximately 7+ minutes!!! That probably gives the best picture of the day noting that some were very patient while others pushed and shoved to get their interview in early. This was the process for our third Form Five intake – in the first year there were not enough applicants to take all the places available, last year the numbers were reasonable and the process must have seemed practical. And this was the first round of interviews – there is to be another session on March 15th to ‘complete’ the process for those who have applied but have no had their interview yet! Obviously the process will be drastically changed for next year! After the interviews came the next part – how to decide on the offers to students by Wednesday morning given that I would be away from Sunday evening! I spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning and afternoon with the papers of the 287 applicants – 85 girls and 202 boys with over 200 wanting Boarding ( we only have 58 places for girls and 58 for boys)! By Sunday afternoon I was able to compile a list of those to whom offers would be made specifying the Combination (another complication within the process but not for further comment now!) that they would take and whether it would be for Boarding or Day. In the end we still have some places available for girls but not for boys if all the boys offered places accept them; I anticipate that many will not as we could only offer them Day status and they will try to seek Boarding elsewhere. One of the messages coming from this experience (besides the review of the interview process) is that Boarding is in extremely high demand, a demand we con in no way meet. And I suspect that it will only become more difficult for us if and when our results indicate that our A-Level students do very well – and this is what we expect from our first Form Sixes whose ‘mock’ exams indicated a very high pass rate! I was then driven out to Usa River (20+km from Arusha) for the start of a three week Beginners’ course in Kiswahili! I didn’t quite feel like it after the weekend I had had! The evening was a ‘settling in’ with the early night most welcome. 25/02-02/03/08 This week has been nowhere near as hectic but has been very full. The daily programme roughly consists of three two-hour sessions with the afternoon one being more a revision of the learning than an input session. Then it is some free time but with an allotment of ‘homework’. It has become obvious that my ability to grasp the speaking of the language is limiting though I do much better at applying the theory behind the construction of the language. Still it is only Week One! The teachers are very patient and we generally work in very small groups. I am in a group of five with three Americans (two of whom have no idea about grammar, etc) and a young woman from the UK. The venue ( it has been partly sponsored by the Danish government for over 30 years) is very, very good – equal to or better than many a conference venue in Australia – and caters for a number of groups (some days there would be over 90 for lunch. I decided that living in was the preferred option and I have been able to concentrate on the language learning while leaving the business of school behind – I did exchange a few e-mails concerning the Form Five enrolments but that seems to have progressed well since last Saturday. Yesterday, Saturday, I was able to get a break from the routine when I joined four others (all younger than me with one the other man from Germany and three young women from Holland/Norway, England and Czechoslovakia) on the course on an excursion to Arusha National Park nearby – we left at 9.00 and returned at 6.00. We encountered giraffe, buffalo, zebra, monkey, baboon, a variety of antelope and quite a number of birds with two crested cranes being a highlight. We then came back almost cross country though a Maasai area – very desolate with the people being desperately poor. The day finished with an evening meal and a few beers. So now it is Sunday and it is back to the books .... and the homework .... I am starting to have a real affinity with our Form One students who have to learn English in quite a rapid time and I can also see why some of our teachers revert to their native tongue when the explanation to the students gets tough! Asanteni! Salama...

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080217

2008-09-21T11:51:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 7 17/02/08 As I approach the first ‘half century’ of days here in Edmund Rice Sinon, I am starting to feel that the beginning is over and that we are about to settle into some routine! The novelty is now being replaced by the normal and the challenges are no longer in the immediate but for the long term. The past week has had fewer high points and can best be summarised in terms of a couple of the activities: Our first experience of National Examinations for the Form Sixes was a novelty for me but basically the norm for those who have experienced the Form Four and Form Two National Examinations. I will only comment on two aspects – supervision and practical exams – otherwise the procedures are not too different from elsewhere. The Deputy Principal (deputising for the Headmaster) .... I had my first experience of ‘Fee Collection African Style’. On Monday, following a couple of warnings, all those whose first payment of fees had not been received were sent home until they were paid. The Business Manager, must more used to the process, told me that this is the only way to get some to pay and that the numbers were rather less than usual for this exercise! One of the consequences of the sending home were the immediate appeals to the Headmaster for assistance with fees – we currently have 170 students on full sponsorship and are not able to add more. So the answer in most cases has to be ‘No’. Of course everybody would like full sponsorship – interestingly, it is the students who make the approach with parents seldom appearing at the school for any reason. Most students were able to resume classes by Wednesday though some will take over a week to find the finance. On Wednesday we had a visitor from Ireland with his son. They are here to climb Mt Kilimanjaro but also to provide financial support for a project for local people – contributions come from his business and its associates. It was a generous contribution for some student sponsorship and for development of student accommodation – a very pleasant surprise for us as student accommodation will continue to be a concern for the next couple of years as our boarding programme expands from Form Two to Forms Three and Four. Currently we have 127 boarders in Forms One and Two and about 130 in Forms Five and Six and during the week there is an additional 389 hostellers – that is over 700 on site each week night, Monday to Friday! On Thursday we had interviews for the new role of Department Head – for the various subjects under the Departments of Language (Kiswahili and English), Mathematics, Science (Biology, Chemistry and Physics at all levels!) and Social Science (Civics, Geography and History) with a couple of subjects still to be allotted to Departments. While there were only a few candidates, the interviews took longer than the expected 30 minutes each – a sign of the interest in the positions as well as the need of the panel to get clarification of expectations and abilities. The successful candidates have been appointed for the remainder of the year by which time there will be a review of progress and process with a view to longer term appointments. On Thursday about fifteen minutes before the end of school it rained and rained heavily – eighty points in about forty minutes. It was pleasing to see that the buildings withstood the onslaught well – there were only a few invasions from the water which flowed rapidly across the roofs (almost no such thing as spouting here) and the grounds (without really cleaning them as soil and rubbish were deposited in various places). I am told that we are beginning our ‘wet’ season and the farmers (almost everybody!) are busily ploughing and planting in expectation of a very good season! It was also interesting to see snow on the peak of Mt Meru, the mountain close by Arusha, on a couple of mornings – one newspaper article suggested that it hadn’t happened for a long time, a claim disputed by others with better memories!. I presume that that will mean good falls for Kilimanjaro which has not been visible lately due to cloud cover. It is also presumably a sign of good rains for the coming wet season! I already prefer the dust of the long dry to the mud of the short wet!! The other event of note for the week is that one of our volunteers who has been here for just over a year has had her last day – on Friday. Sharon has been here since the beginning of 2007 and along with her friend, Rachel, who will be staying another couple of months, has been an absolute dynamo in getting involved with the school and its programmes. She/they will be sadly missed by all and particularly the administration as they have been instrumental in the introduction/development of a number of programmes – hopefully the teachers are now able to maintain them! Sharon will still be around for the next week and we will farewell her on Thursday evening at the Brothers’ house with the Headmaster acting as Thursday chef each week. Enough for the past week with the coming week expected to be a little hectic as things get done to enable the Headmaster some time (three weeks) to do a Swahili language course! We have a staff meeting, will be advertising for new teachers for A-Level which starts its new academic year on March 31st, and preparing for next Saturday’s interviews for the many Form Five applicants. We will have no problem in getting our numbers, only in choosing which students to offer places to in each of our combinations – we expect to offer eight combinations with a maximum of 30 in each, with the Science-Maths ones being the harder to fill. About 160, only 115-120 can be boarders, is our target. We also have to wait for the government schools to make their priority offers – so there is a second round of offers after interviews on March 15th, straight after I finish the language course. The break between the A-Level academic years is quite short – the Form Fives finish examinations (internal) on March 7th and return for Form Six on March 31st, a bit later than usual due to early Easter..... all of this is for future consideration.

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080210

2008-09-21T11:48:00.002+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 6 10/02/08

Another week with a lot of variety – but I think we are getting closer to a ‘normal’ week in the school! There were three main highlights along with a couple of other bits and pieces that are worth a brief mention. It has rained heavily for a couple of nights during the past week – the wet season is about to hit us. But this week’s rain – about 40 points – was enough to understand that the change from dust to mud has its own particular challenges. While it is easy to have regular clean outs (sweep, dust and mop) during the dry times, the mud is much harder to control – much of it is like Merri Creek soil, dark and thick and clingy, almost like walking on a wet wicket! And when it gets inside, it is harder to remove! But it has been most welcome by the locals as many will now start their plantings for the next crops – maize, etc. Despite the rain – and I thought I saw snow briefly on Mt Meru – the temperature has remained steady and the comfortable inside climate continues. While the locals resort to jumpers, I am still in the short sleeves! And the nights are similarly very comfortable. Undoubtedly the main highlight of the week was the Baraza – the day long school celebration for welcoming the new students, praying a blessing on the year and the graduation of our first Form Sixes. Much preparation had gone into the day for the previous week or so and on all accounts it seemed to be a great success. Given that the preparations on the morning g were just a little hectic – where were the teachers and thank God for the few volunteers who came to see but ended up doing! – we were able to start just a little late (9.15 am), a surprise for some of the locals who are used to events being well behind time! We were also fortunate that the ‘Special invited Guest’ - Br Frank O’Shea – was on time; sometimes this person, without whom you cannot start, is quite late and without any apology! We began with a welcome from the Deputy Principal for O’Level, followed by the national anthem – same tune as South Africa’s but with some local wording and all in Swahili – sung with great gusto, the students here being quite willing and keen to sing together. Next followed a liturgy of ‘welcome and prayer’ based around a role play of a Gospel story, some shared reflections from the students and some prayers for the various groups – all this enhanced by the School Choir who were in very fine voice even if the performing of the songs/hymns was a little overdone! The remainder of the programme was a mixture of performances from various groups of students interspersed with the more formal aspects – lots of speeches and the presentation of the Form Six graduands. The Headmaster spoke twice, initially in response to the welcome in the liturgy, also to set the theme for the year – “Be the Best that We can Be” – and to welcome the new students especially the Form Ones who responded with one of the four classes chosen after competition to present the School Song. We took a break for twenty (which became thirty at about 10.45). Upon resumption, the Form Six Graduation was the main agenda and contained speeches from the Deputy Headmaster for A-Level, addresses from a mother and father representing the parents of the Form Sixes, the Headmaster (again), the ‘Special Invited Guest’, the Head Girl and Head Boy and the Board Chairman who moved the final vote of thanks. We also included the presentation of the 134 Graduands – with an ‘academic robe’ (designed and made within the school) and their Graduation Certificate with their various other awards being mentioned. There was much to be done! However all were most pleased that the programme was able to follow the prearranged schedule and we actually finished just a little early at around 2.00 pm – probably the result of limiting the numbers who wanted to perform and ensuring that transitions did not take too much time. Some latecomers – people were continually arriving during the day – were surprised that we finished so early! The formalities were then followed by lunch for the students in general, special lunch for staff and a few guests and many small gatherings of students with their families and/or friends – some only came for this part. For the Headmaster it became a ‘cakewalk’! At each group there were photos to be taken of the headmaster being fed a small amount of cake (via toothpick or fork) by the graduand; try eating 100 or so small pieces of cake in an hour or so!!! No dinner that evening. The general comments on the day were that it was a great success and we were still able to do some evaluations that will hopefully help in making future such events even more enjoyable and successful. The third major event of the week was the departure of Br Frank O’Shea – for the final time. He spent the last week with us, made lots of ‘last visits’ to friends and authorities, was the special guests for the Form Six Graduation and prepared for his return to Australia. We went out for dinner on Friday evening (to ‘Stiggy’s, run by a former Brisbanite!) and others dropped by for a drink and final farewell – I managed a few new contacts including a former Tasmanian!). I am sure that Frank left with very mixed feelings – much gratitude for what had been achieved over his thirteen years here, some relief that there was a clear break coming his way and some finality to some friendships made over those thirteen years. Hopefully he will feel free – and the opportunity will be there – to come and visit at some time in the future. He left quietly early on Saturday morning but I am sure that his presence will remain for some time yet – some who do not get what they want from the new headmaster ask “where is Br Frank?” so that they can appeal to him! A few other bits of the week deserve a mention: I have written to all of our Form Four Division One and Two students from last year and invited them to consider Edmund Rice Sinon for their A-Level studies – the Government Schools get first pick and will be making offers to top students over the next couple of weeks! The other schools then get to choose from those left and who apply for a position! I had four of these students drop in to discuss possibilities with the headmaster – they asked good questions - and I am hopeful of getting some of our top students back for A-Level We have had lots of enquiries re Form Five with many seeking early interviews (appointment is unheard of!) with the Headmaster in the hope that he might give an immediate answer and/or offer sponsorship; we have set up a process of application and interview prior to any offers and so far there have been no exceptions to the process. Yesterday I attended with Br Vincent, the A-level Deputy, the pre examination meeting for Form Six examinations. I was sorely tested by five hours of input – entirely in Swahili!!! – on steel chairs with one fifteen minute break. We finished 90 minutes late and then had to go to the office to collect and check information for the examinations which start tomorrow! We found that some students we had been working for to be accepted had been so (very pleasing) and some of the information on subject entries was inaccurate. I was able to finish about 3.30, Vincent was still at it until 6.00 pm. We have received rankings on our Form Four results – in the top 18% of schools in the country (259th out of 1 453) with our best results in Geography (top 9% of schools), English (top 15%) and Biology (top 15%) and Mathematics (top 20% despite 104 failures out of 186 candidates!!!!) History, Kiswahili and Civics were our worst (but all still in the top 40% schools). We also get ranked within the 78 schools of our zone – basically the same results. It will be interesting to discuss the statistics with the teachers. That is it for the past week – this week will be dominated by the Form Six examinations. The students are well prepared but very nervous as their results are so important for their futures. The ‘mock’ examinations late last year predict good out comes – let us hope and pray that the hard work of students and staff is rewarded.

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080203

2008-09-21T11:46:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 5 03/02/08 What was going to be a seemingly quiet planning week for next week’s full-school and full-day celebration for the start of the year and to acknowledge the Form Sixes as they finish at the school has been anything but! Monday was reasonably ordinary until late in the day – then one of the Deputy Principals returned from town with the news that starting tomorrow (ie Tuesday) we would be having a full-school inspection! Normally one has no warning and ours was just a favour of the Chief Inspector, a friend of the school – an evening’s warning is hardly a warning of an inspection/audit/review/etc – whatever it is called these days. Similarly it is a ‘little’ unfair on a new principal/headmaster in only the third week of a new school year! None of that seemed to matter when the two – one male and one female, but not the Chief Inspector (and then a third, another male) inspectors arrived on Tuesday morning and announced that they were here for a full inspection of the school. They started with a visit with the Headmaster, signing the Visitor’s Book and checking that payment for the inspection would be available by the time they left on Thursday. Then came an outline of the process – no negotiation – and the things that they would be looking for - mainly paper work from a list of 38 items to be presented!! At this stage, the Headmaster – in his best tradition – was breathing heavily but was still able to offer the two (at this stage) inspectors a tour of the school. Of course a start at the Library – there probably is not a school in Tanzania with such an asset – was a good move; they were breathing heavily with surprise by this stage and then continued to be surprised as we toured the A-level campus (including the rapidly rising new Physics and Chemistry laboratories) with which neither were familiar. It turns out that inspections had been pending for the past two or so years and was only coming to life now! We continued through the O-Level with an occasional stop to visit the Special programme students and for one of the inspectors to chip a teacher that he was not teaching in English! The teacher was a university student getting some experience before returning to study next week. And so the tour finished with us sharing ‘chai’, ie morning tea. Then they chatted with other members of the Leadership Team - both Deputy Headmasters and the Academic Master - giving each of them further lists of required paperwork! Much of the paperwork was repeated for two or more of us! .... was really the business of some other member of the school! (example financial and facility information would come from the School’s Business Manager who was seemingly avoided!) ... and was required by the next morning. They then visited a few classes, or teachers really, to see both the method of teaching and that the curriculum was being followed. Day One of the Inspection finished with a scamper for paper/information much of which was available but some of which was not. A number of teachers had not put their teacher’s workbooks to much use in the first couple of weeks and some of the filing had already revealed that some aspects were in very short supply. On Day Two, they (already back to two) arrived after morning tea expressing how busy they were! And then proceeded to pour over the paper work interspersed with a few more visits to classrooms and also to check the facilities of the boarding houses/hostels. As on each day, they had lunch with the Headmaster and were not interested in meeting staff in the staffroom at such times. More paperwork followed in the afternoon including the Headmaster’s file on every teacher. As they were leaving they requested to meet with the student monitors and also with the staff before the final briefing with the Leadership team and the Chair of the Board if available. But no time for the meeting with students was given other than “when we arrive”! On Day Three, the ten minute session with the student monitors lasted over a (40 minute) period. The session with the staff – remember staff meetings here have the students working quietly in classrooms with no (or little – thank goodness for some of the volunteers whom I asked to be a presence to the students) supervision - went for over an hour and a quarter despite my reminder that students should be taught rather than be left on their own! It was a bit of ‘how dare you suggest that what I/we (the male did all the talking in all situations) are doing isn’t the priority’! In both of these sessions, little information was given by the inspectors – they were much more interested in what the students had to say about the place and what questions the teachers had for them. Both sessions were generally positive with the last part of the teachers’ session containing recommendations for improvements. The final briefing of the Leadership Team and the Board Chair was also quite lengthy – another hour and a quarter – with the talk mainly from one side with a few questions at the end – after we had been given our mark, initially for each of the six sections of the report and then an aggregate mark! We did quite well on five of the six sections, Management and Administration, Buildings and Infrastructure, Furniture and Materials, Surroundings and Environment and school culture. We were not so successful in the Curriculum Implementation section (which constitutes almost half of the aggregate score) – there are some obvious developments in this area that are possible, had already been acknowledge and depend very much upon staff commitment and supervision of the Teaching and Learning aspects of our education provision. A final aggregate score of 66% - B will earn us a letter of encourage from the Chief Inspector; an A would have earned us a letter of congratulations from the President! So, while the process was challenging and much of it an ‘old-style’ inspection, we will get some impetus out of it to move forward with some of our decisions with regard to Teaching and Learning. Some changes have already been started and there will be more! Maybe, the inspection was timely even if sudden and uninspiring in many ways. And then we were at Friday with my heading off to a meeting of the District Heads of Secondary Schools (TAHOSSA!) at the Museum Hall. I arrived on time only to find that the Museum Hall was elsewhere! Sometime later I arrived at the right place in the middle of an input from the Director of Education – all in Swahili as was the first two hours of the meeting except for when I was asked to introduce myself. The remainder of the meeting stuttered between English and Swahili which meant that I picked up a few aspects of what was being discussed. I even contributed to one section where I objected to winning sporting teams being given financial reward for their success! Over half the sports budget goes in such rewards which are won by the large schools with some of the smaller schools paying dues without participating in the sports – we will need to get it right as there is an intention of increasing the number of sports for competition as early as this year. My comment was treated with stony silence! What else would you expect from a new mzungu? The meeting started at 9.30 and went straight through without a break until the agenda and business was covered – there seemed to be no short questions or short answers - at just on 3.00. Lunch then followed! The Form Four examination results were also out on Friday – via Internet with hard copy to come to the school during the coming week. Our results are our best ever with 11 students achieving Div 1 (previous best was 6) and there being only one failure in 186! A great send-off for Frank O’Shea in that the school is doing what it seeks to do – provide education of a standard that encourages the students to advance themselves and make of the most of the privilege they have in proceeding to Form Four. The down side of such success is that all of our top students will end up in the government schools who get first pick after the publication of results – I think they take a week to pour over the results and to make their first round offers! We then get to make offers to those next in line! Hence the fact that our Form Five intake will be 80+% new to the school! All that is to come into my experience over the next couple of weeks. We do our first round of interviews in two weeks time and the second round three weeks later. Yesterday was a reasonably normal Saturday with some office work, inspection of the A-Level dormitories, watched the Form Six v Form Five football match, etc. But we also hosted an Edmund Rice Camp (for 50 local primary students) conducted by the volunteers here on immersion experience with help from some Form Five, Two and One boarders.... and a wedding, the biggest in the district for some years! The day finished with a little cards which helped bring some sanity to the anticipated ‘quiet’ week. The coming week will be different again as we celebrate our first full gathering for Welcome to the Form Ones, Blessing of the school year and Form Six Graduation. The anticipated schedule is from 9.00 am until 2.00 pm with one break of 30 minutes – lunch will follow the end of the formalities. This is one of three big days and will be special this year with the first graduation of Form Sixes as the highlight – Br Frank O’Shea, the previous principal is the special Guest of Honour and it will be his final function before returning to Australia for some R and R. (Hopefully these reflections will eventually reduce to less than a page but not just yet ... And there will also be a personal reflection on how I am in all of this – that must come soon!)

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080126

2008-09-21T11:44:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 4 26/01/2008 - 27/01/2008 This reflection is being started while I wait for the “Dini” Graduation of Form Six on a Saturday at 9.00 am! It is now 9.10 and I am assured that nothing will begin before 9.30 and possibly later. “Dini” Graduation is a tradition in all schools - government, religious and any other type of school . “Dini” is the word for religion and today here at Edmund Rice Sinon Secondary School three religions will hold simultaneous Graduation ceremonies – Catholic, Lutheran and Muslim; the number of Form Six students for each is similar. The ceremonies will take about six to seven hours each including breaks and there will be three separate feasts as part of the day – the different lots of cooks are already hard at it! As yet I am not very familiar with what takes place for/by the headmaster other than being told by the student organising the Catholic ceremonies that i will be asked to make a speech – no theme or guidelines given. My other challenge for the day is to be present for some part of each of the ceremonies – I have heard of bi-location but tri-location will be even more challenging! (cont. Sunday 27/01/2008 It was a long day – the ‘official party’ were finally released at 4.15! I had visited both the Muslim and Lutheran gatherings earlier in the day – invited to speak at both! I’m not sure how what I said was taken – for many at the Muslim gathering, English is their third language behind Swahili and Arabic. Both groups were smaller than the Catholic group but were quite attentive. My address at the Catholic gathering came mid-afternoon as people were waning – again it seemed to be well received, certainly by other members of the ‘official party’. The official guest and the cutting of the cake were both quite lengthy – and costly as the hat was being passed around to set up a bank account for the YCS (Young Christian Students) group of the school .... there needs to be some evaluation of ‘Dini’ graduation – it almost rivals graduation itself, apparently at both Forms Four and Six. My day ended at a gathering at Food, Shelter, Water to celebrate Australia Day. About 20 were present, just over half Australian with the others a broad mix including one local family; home-made cricket bat and a football appeared - to give taste to the occasion along with a barbeque (steaks, sausages, chicken, etc. A good relaxing experience though I was the first to leave – it had been a long day!) Another week has passed and one could say that things are settling down – we are now refusing all applications and so far no students have withdrawn; we have 230 students for Form One in the belief that this will reduce to around 200 when the government makes second (and possibly third) round offers of places at the government schools – they are not as well set up structurally or staff-wise but the attraction is that they are ‘free’ – meaning it will cost less than here at ERSSS. We also have over 200 in each of Forms Two, Three and Four, some 850 in O-Level. Numbers for A-Level for this year will not be decided until we do our new Form Five enrolments in late Feb-early March assuming Form Four results are out by then – the Form Four Exams were in mid-October! I was about to say that no-one had left and then I remembered that I have had my first staff resignation after less than two weeks back – the teacher was upset that I would not grant two weeks study leave after one week back from five+ weeks of holidays! So I am now seeking a teacher of mathematics. I have taken one class of Form Fours – it went well despite the fact that the students had no text books! Nor did the teacher! Other memories of the week: Ø Staff Meeting, Monday, had excellent attendance and I was able to get staff unanimous approval for the introduction of Department Heads to cover the curriculum subjects – basically Language, Mathematics, Science and Social Studies with a couple of subjects not yet allotted to a department. Ø Graduation preparation, including the design of an ‘academic’ gown as ‘colours’ for the students, continued. It will be a long day but I think we have developed an acceptable programme – some difficulty with challenging “we always do it this way – though no reason can be given”! Ø My decision to accept a couple of Form Three girls as boarders – is to be regarded as an exception at this time. We will have Form Three boarders next year and Form Four the year after – Frank had already made a couple of exceptions for Form Four girl boarders. Girls boarding and hostel accommodation is absolutely full while we have a few places for boarders at Forms Three and Four. Ø It is also interesting to note that we have about 100 more places for boys in boarding and hostel accommodation than for girls! The introduction of boarding for both Form Three girls and boys next year (and Form Four the following year!) will necessitate some planning during this year. Ø I have toured the school a couple of times to find students generally quiet and some teaching going on – chalk on the rough blackboards leaves one well covered with white chalk dust at the end of a period and even worse for a double period! A couple of white boards are evident but seem to be of poor quality and the markers dry out very quickly in this climate. Ø The young ER volunteers from Melbourne have helped the Form Ones with their English but their attendance over the next two weeks will be quite spasmodic – maybe only twice a week. Ø Gerald Mgalula was around for the week and was part of three meetings with myself and others (and some follow-up with those others) – ‘Dini’, sports arrangements and Edmund Rice Camps. The two young Kenyan brothers will pick up some of these responsibilities but will need other staff members to get involved. Gerald was obviously a much loved and active part of the school community also having great maintenance skills and endeavour. These reflections a little less than last week’s and that is intentional – it is dangerous to build expectations in oneself – and it is my intention that they generally be only of two A4 pages per week. I continue with good health while still adjusting to the climate – a little trouble with the sinuses has been the only hassle. I continue to live ‘out of a suitcase’ (ie what I brought oon the plane with me!) as the materials put in the container in November have not yet arrived – probably on the wharf at Dar Es Salaam during a particularly busy period due to the Kenyan situation.... but they will be here soon – fits well with ‘African’ time! And will be more than welcome when they make it!

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080119

2008-09-21T11:42:00.001+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 3 19/01/2008 PM - 20/01/2008 AM The first full week – full as far as all the staff and students were present – has come to an end. And i feel that it was a good week – despite the fact that I am still finding out information, processes and understandings that will be important as the year progresses. It is probably not quite correct that all staff and students are present – we are still taking new enrolments (each day of the past week we had a dozen or so students take our entrance examination – with only about one in five being accepted!) and some of the enrolled students are starting late for a long variety of reasons. The best way for me to reflect on the week is to do so through a series of thoughts that have occurred over the week – they are generally brief in preference to overdoing a couple to the detriment of others: v The first day for O-Level staff and students was last Monday – for all except Form One which started on Tuesday. The start is very impersonal – a list of about 50 names is read out and off you go with a teacher to a classroom to get the academic year started. The teacher has done very little preparation to welcome the students other than to have a list to check who has arrived and to assign a couple of tasks such as lunch monitors, room monitor, etc. Then it is straight into work! The next teacher into the room will basically start his subject with little or no effort to meet the students in any pastoral way – it is basically “let us get on with our subject” with most teachers teaching only one discipline to a couple of classes. So it is very impressive how quickly the routine of school is adopted but I do wonder about the personal/pastoral interest in one’s students! v In light of these reflections and the lack of a sense of order and sense of pastoral care, the Headmaster has given a directive that each class teacher must have the students in allotted seats with a master sheet of the class seating available for each teacher of that class – the students are together in the one room for about 70% of the week! The principal aim of this requirement is to encourage staff to learn names while at the same time providing some way of checking on attendance at a glance. v I visited the evening study for the boarders and hostellers and there was a similar sense of randomness in the classrooms! So next week those responsible for study supervision will also allot students to a particular room and a particular seat with a seating arrangement available for anyone who comes into the room. Year levels separated, boarders together, hostellers together. (I hope my sense of order is understood as both a pastoral and management strategy rather than any imposition!) v On Tuesday I was around as the Form One students arrived for their first day – some as day students, others as hostellers (ie Monday to Friday) and still others as boarders (ie full time including weekends) many accompanied by parents and bringing their both their school bags and hostel/boarding requirements. Again it was quite impersonal – a list was read out, a classroom was pointed out and off you went to meet a new teacher who very soon was into class work. Parents were ignored, late comers were lucky to find someone who could direct them – unless it was the Headmaster who had to be useful in some way, even if totally unplanned! The young people and their parents were very accepting of the process despite how impersonal it was. I was disturbed by it but accepting on this occasion! Recording it here will hopefully evince a different way of doing things next year! That is my intention – but it will need to be sold to the staff! v On Wednesday morning I took Form Four ‘Dini’ – ie the religion class for the Catholic students; there are also separate classes for the Lutherans and for the Muslims – other students have to be part of one of these three! A double period (90 minutes) of religious education with no texts, course or hint of what is normally done with over 70 students in an ordinary classroom! Both the students and I survived with no great hassle – though there was great reluctance to answer any questions except by a couple who were quite exceptional. I started with some introductory exercises and we finished with a paraliturgy based on being thankful for our gifts – opening and closing songs/hymns in Kiswahili, scripture also in Kiswahili and our prayers of thanks in English. The session was finished with the ‘general secretary’ of the Catholic students group raising a number of issues about approaching celebrations including the first official Baraza (school assembly) for the year in about three weeks. He got better response than I did! v The cleaning of the school is in the hands of the students – each group is allocated an area and is then expected to carry the respective tasks – mainly washing with bucket of water and cloth. There seems to be great responsibility among many of the students and the monitors are whole-hearted in seeing that things get done. Many students are industrious while there is also the ‘reluctant’ group (as you would find anywhere) who are there but not very active! And the staff are probably already on their way home – with the expectation that the job will be done and in that way they can avoid having any comment on the standard of the work or support for the students who are doing it! v I noted a caption recently that suggested that dust was ‘Tanzanian snow’ – but I think that is still the pervasive of it a little short! Even though we have had a few light showers over the past week, it has done nothing to settle the dust. And thus we have the ‘colour’ of Tanzania – a light covering of grey-brown no matter what is underneath! So dusting is required frequently but seems to have little effect. v One of the strong remnants of the week is how strong the demand for a place in boarding is – even those who live almost next to the school want boarding, not even hostel, accommodation. This seems to principally result from the impression (and i think it is correct) that those in boarding have good conditions for study – light, lack of family noise, space, supervision, organised programme and the motivation to do well – boarding (currently only at Form One and Two in O-Level - while hostel is available at every level) is offered to the academically gifted in preference to other demands such as distance from the school, etc! Hostel care seems to be the resolution of the latter. v Boarding will progressively be made available to Forms Three and Four over the next two years – but I am not sure how it will be provided as we already currently have (other than the A-Level provision for both girls and boys (c 120 in each)) one boys boarding and hostel wing and one girls boarding and hostel wing – both on-campus – and three off-campus facilities (c(50+32+145)) – mostly for boys but also for girls. These are nearby and depend upon school facilities – for eating, study and hygiene. And there are waiting lists for both boarding and hostel! So this is one major matter for forward planning. v I have previous noted the extraordinary demand for sponsorship/scholarship ( I prefer the former while locally the latter is the common usage) for everything if one can get it. It has occurred to me that many just expect that such things will happen while others may try to use various subtleties to access a ‘free’ education. Not all the stories one hears are authentic or the whole picture – and I am slowly learning to note various strategies. I have even had to say no to a couple of priests who were not quite ‘up-front’ with their requests on behalf of their parishioners or ‘family’ in its very broad sense. We are also limited in the number we can offer as the amount of sponsorship – about $340 for a day student per year –that is received by the school from generous donors all over the world, does not cover the requests. I think about 30% of students in each Form in O-Level are on sponsorship, most full for study costs. In recent conversations with students and parents (mainly mothers), I note many are willing to accept that they ought be contributing a little where possible. I’ll be interested to see how these go over the year. (This reflection is getting a lot longer than I intended! So.... just a couple more to finish with!) v Being Headmaster here has a particular ‘honour’ attached to it! One is treated with a fair amount of deference by staff ( with repeated references to being made welcome and to how much one is looking forward to working with the new HM – I find it both embarrassing and sycophantic though it is not meant in that way!). However one gets really into the role when dealing with staff on individual matters such as salary increases (after already being told by the previous administration of the significant increase for the commencement of this year!) and refusing an application for two weeks study leave wanted just one week after returning from a five+ week break over Christmas! There has also been a situation with an A-Level student who has had to be sent home for bullying and harassment of other students despite a number of warnings. These actions certainly put one well back into the reality of leadership! v My closing reflection for this week is to express a sense of gratitude that there is obvious acceptance of the change of HM and I have been personally gratified by the welcome from all whom I have met – so far there have been no “But Br Frank would....”! I am hopeful that I can continue to be in contact with all aspects of the school while realising that that is a very significant undertaking and being very dependent upon the support of others at various levels of responsibility .... Hence my planning for regular meetings with a number of sectionsof the organisation – pastoral, curriculum, boarding/hostel, study, ..... v The Brothers community has been a significant part of the welcome and support and will receive further comment in one of the next reflections..... I can say the same about the volunteers who have been here for some time and the couple who are just starting now.

This post was made by Br L C Barrett cfc on 080921

Reflection 080111

2008-09-21T11:41:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 2 11/01/2008 I thought I might take the opportunity on this Friday afternoon to reflect on the experience here so far – just ten days since arriving! But it does seem to be much longer – not because of progress but that seems to be the nature of each day! I arrived on New Year’s Day after an uneventful flight and bus ride from Melbourne to Arusha. The gathering of brothers (from Shams and here) for New Year’s Day was supplemented by a couple of volunteers and was very enjoyable – all seemed to be in good form. The next four days were spent in a bit of a blur with frequent conversations with Frank and some time just to look through some correspondence. I was picking things up but also very aware that there was going to be much that I was missing or not being told – just through the busyness of Frank during his last few days. I did get some time to myself and spent a lot of that tidying records and transferring material from Frank’s computer to mine. I did meet a number of the senior staff and was impressed by the welcome. Frank left on Sunday morning after a farewell at the local parish church including a special collection for himself – he was keen to go and to do so with little song and dance. Despite that we seemed to have a social event each evening, some in and others out! So.... then I was on my own. A-Level started on Monday with a number of staff not arriving and some of the students being sent home for fees! All seemingly common occurrences! I signed my first new staff that day to start the next and also managed to find another to complete the staffing until some might be missing when the O-Level commenced. I met the staff briefly at morning tea and had a short baraza with the students on Tuesday afternoon. Things seemed to start without much concern and Vincent was clearly well organised for the various adjustments that had to be made. Wednesday was another matter with 3 to 400 young people sitting for entrance exams for Forms One to Four – there was very little space in Form Three given that we had only one failure in 203! But we still offered a further ten places as there are always some who will change without any notification. The Form Ones are the most intriguing: so far, after both entrance exams – October and this week – we have offered over 400 places with only about 150 so far accepting the offer – they are due to start on Tuesday! Paul assures me that we will get near the 200 given previous years of experience. It is really unusual that we have to wait for the Government schools to make their offers before we can finalise ours – a complete reversal from another place and time! The other Forms will not be a problem. Thursday saw the return of the O-Level staff – most were here and those missing had been in earlier in the week. The staff meeting went about an hour and a half and provided the new headmaster with an opportunity to introduce himself and some of his educational theory, practice and expectation – there were no immediate resignations! And today has been another day at the office.... and now, as it rains for the first time since my arrival, I am checking my impressions: The first impression has been the dust! It seems to pervade everything and takes some getting used to – but it is manageable. The second is the number of parents – almost always the mother – who are seeking scholarship–sponsorship. It is easy to note the poverty, very difficult to understand the story - generally given in Swahili and quite difficult not to automatically say yes to all. There is a demand for accommodation, both boarding and hostel, and a hope that that also would be covered. I am learning caution though well aware of my past where I have been regarded as a ‘soft-touch’! And it is very nice to receive the gratitude of those for whom the answer is in the affirmative. More experience is needed though Paul has been great in giving advice. The third impression has been around the need to bring some order and cohesion to the office – those files that are available have been sorted, named and filed so that I have some idea of where to look! It was similar with Frank’s computer filing – hopefully I will not have to seek information from these resources too often! As anticipated, getting to know people – particularly the staff and there are some 80+ of them covering all areas – will be a slow process. Many were surprised that I have organised for a photo of each – with common name (as expected to be used) – for publishing in the staffroom.... Unfortunately they will be in black and white which may not help!!! Another impression is around the attitude of the A-Level students – they seem to be very accepting of their situation, generally ready for study and able to fill in the many hours during which they are really ‘self-responsible’. I do have a feeling that some are not as motivated as others but that is not unusual in any group of young people. I am not trying too hard to get to know the seniors as they leave in another three to four weeks. That might be enough for the present – just some ramblings generally on the school experience so far! The community, brothers’ for one and brothers plus volunteers for the other, has been nothing other than supportive and for that I am very appreciative; we will be initially complete when Geoffrey/Kithinji arrives tomorrow or Sunday. But we don’t ever seem to be quite complete with the coming and going of various volunteers – I am keeping an eye/ear out for developments on the matter at the Oceania end and the immersion experience about to start will be of great interest.... One practical matter: I do have a phone with a new number – Frank has taken his with him and maintained the old school number. My number is 0753860477..... And while on communications, I am now SKYPE registered through ‘lcbarrett43’ and quite happy to communicate through that medium – but a warning! Our internet works well when it is not too busy – it is busy every school day from about 8am until 5pm but you can be lucky. Next week will be even more interesting than the last two – that is when we will have all staff and students present and in action!This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on

Reflection 080106

2008-09-21T11:39:00.000+03:00

AFRICAN REFLECTION 1 06/01/2008 Frank O’Shea has left this morning – though he will be passing through for a couple of days in early February! So the transition has, to all intents and purposes, taken place – I am now the Headmaster/Principal (both terms get some use) of Edmund Rice Sinon Secondary School! I arrived here in Sinon/Arusha last Tuesday – New Years Day – and each day has seen its share of initiation and most have finished with celebration and/or visitors. My journey from Melbourne to Dubai (a very long 14+ hour flight) to Nairobi was uneventful – on time with full flights. Due to some electoral backlash, Nairobi was not a welcoming place – except, of course, for the brothers who were ever generous and hospitable. After an overnight stay – and a very welcome bed for the first time in 30 hours – I travelled by the shuttle bus to Arusha. Again the trip was uneventful and I saw no signs of the conflict that has been reported within some parts of Kenya. The trip was regarded as quite quick – just on five hours. As the shuttle is the regular means of transport between Arusha and Nairobi, I will need to plan some entertainment – reading and listening – for each trip; the scenery, though interesting, does have a certain monotony about it. So! What of the five days so far? Well I think I have been given a ‘cook’s’ tour of the school but have probably learnt very little other than there are lots of keys, lots of expectations and certainly lots of surprises ahead. I have moved into the office – large and spacious – and spent a fair amount of time becoming familiar with Frank’s systems and communications; I archived much of his computer communications (by year) and will have it available though finding what is needed may be a stressful exercise. Suffice it to say that Frank was not particularly into organised office procedures, some material has been lost due to computer malfunction and other material was by word of mouth and thus not recorded. I am also aware of the very valuable resource that Paul Follas will be – many times Frank mentioned that the particular information was with Paul who also seems to have a reputation for organisation and hard work; he is the accountant for the school but is more a Business Manager having control of much of the operation of the school. I have met a few of the staff, particularly most of the senior managers and they seem quite accepting of the change and hopefully are already realising that there will need to significant patience with the new head – he is obviously very different from the old! After five days, I am struck by two particular aspects of the experience – Dust and Language! Apparently there was useful rains around Christmas but they have not continued and the place (ie everywhere, inside and out!) is very dry and dusty. Each day has been marked by temperature around the mid-20s with generally clear skies – and evenings that are a little cooler with no need yet for a blanket! So that explains why it is dusty but not why the dust is everywhere! That is also straightforward – almost all pathways, roads, etc in the area are dirt and the constant use puts much of it into the air; it settles where it will, inside and out. I have tried to bring some order and cleanliness to the office but will need to be careful of becoming too fastidious – it is a battle that cannot be won. While on ‘dust’, I am also conscious that our house is dusty and that can be explained; but I also feel that it is somewhat chaotic and would hope to be part of bringing some more order to it – otherwise I am going to be uneasy in such a climate! Patience is needed. The other immediate reaction is to recognise my complete lack of local language – despite having put in some hours prior to coming. I really feel that I have zero as the starting point – so it will be interesting to monitor progress. Again patience is going to be the key here – by myself and others! Part of the ‘local’ language aspect/difficulty will be my ability to learn names quickly _ I have met quite a few so far but not many of the names have stuck. One has to find out whether it is the first or last name (or one in between) that is preferred and then attach it to the right person. Again patience! I have come up with the idea that we will take photographs of each staff member, teaching and non-teaching, and have them placed in the staff room to assist all of us in learning names and thereby becoming involved in supporting each member of the community. I won’t extend the idea to photographs of the students – that may be overdoing it early; but learning their names will be even slower! I don’t intend to particularise all of the experiences, just to reflect on the experience and to monitor how I am progressing in becoming the appropriate person to provide leadership with this community. Lesson One might best be summarised in terms of “patience” with both myself and with and by others!This post was made by BR L C Barrett cfc on