Desks for Nyandiwa Primary School, Oyugis, Kenya

              Nyandiwa Primary School was established in 1956 on eight acres of land. It is located in West Kamagak Location in Oyugis district, Nyanza Province, Kenya. Since its establishment, the community has strived to build the school through fundraising and limited resources, starting with simple semi permanent structures in earlier years and more recently constructing a permanent building with eight classrooms. This transition to a permanent structure took a long time, as the people living within this community are generally poor. However, even with the new building, challenges still exist.

             As of 2008, the student enrollment in the school was 536 pupils (258 girls and 278 boys), taught by 15 teachers. With this large student population, only 64 desks were available for student use. Most students sat on the floor while others crowded on the few available desks during classes. This greatly affected the learning environment, with some kids dropping out of school or irregularly attending classes. Eventually the school began to perform very poorly in the national examinations. Teachers were not spared either, having no tables or chairs to use in classrooms and staffrooms; they had to stand for hours working with students. Teaching and learning motivation was very low!

              Joseph Oyugi, an alumni of this school, and a member of SANGO, approached the organization to assist the school. With enough matching grants from SANGO, the school was able to employ a local carpenter who constructed enough desks for all the children in the school. Now there are two students per desk throughout each classroom. The success of this project has been evidenced by the increased student enrollment, especially in the lower classes, and improved performance at national exams.

Proposed girls’ boarding high school in Kipsamwe location, Fort Ternan, Nyanza province, Kenya.

             Schooling in Kenya is not free, as it is in the United States. So, Kenya’s poorer children are often unable to attend high school (fees is approximately $700 U.S. per year, which includes room and board – over 90% of Kenyan high schools are residential). However, those who cannot afford this attend schools which are no more than rudimentary mud shacks such as this one shown below.

 

             SANGO is partnering with Teresa Wasonga, also a member of the association, in constructing a girls’ high school that will also provide support for SANGO scholars. To date, four classrooms that will serve 160 students have been complete. The building of the dormitory to house 80 students is underway.

 

              You can also read more about the project in the April 2010 edition of ed Life, a publication of the College of Education, University of Missouri – Wasonga’s alma mater.