My placement is in Bukoba, a small town near Lake Victoria. Just think, this lake is the second largest in the world, and I get to admire it from my house! It is a very rural area, filled with lots of coffee, lots of bananas, and scarily also lots of snakes. You move around by pikipiki, which is what locals here call motorbikes. All in all, life here is without frills, it is completely simple and genuine.
As soon as I was offered the role, I began researching the country non-stop. After I tore myself a way from photos of natural attractions like Kilimanjaro, the Serengheti, and Zanzibar, I found out how much Tanzanian primary schools really needed support. Classes can often vary between 60 to 70 pupils, so the teachers do need all the help they can get to ensure that every child receives a full education. One book that particularly fascinated me was called “A girl called problem”, a great read that I’d definitely recommend. In it, the first President of Tanzania, Nyerere, is quoted saying that to be a strong and independent country, people from Tanzania needed to be both healthy and educated.
I will be working with different schools, helping the teachers find new and innovative ways to help the students study maths. From what I have found out, teachers here have found topics such as division, place value, multiplication, and subtraction the most challenging. I have to say I was shocked when I heard the results from the 2015 exams, where 80% of pupils failed to divide three digit numbers by one digit numbers. Therefore I have begun developing a booklet to help teachers explain these subjects to the students. I’ll be working very closely with the teachers here, I really hope they will be interested in the methods I suggest.
I am going to be visiting 24 different schools regularly, coaching the teachers, developing tailor-made materials, and building teaching aids. I will be working with over 1500 pupils, helping them develop their numeracy and literacy skills.
