EdUKaid’s Work
EdUKaid supports the communities, pupils and schools under our care in a variety of ways. We believe that it is important to provide the best possible education for our pupils.
School Support
All of the Primary and Secondary schools in the area that we work in suffer from an inordinate lack of even the most basic resources and facilities. Most schools have insufficient classrooms, sanitary facilities, desks, chairs and textbooks. Each classroom has a poor quality blackboard and some chalk but that is the extent of their teaching resources. EdUKaid is working to improve this situation by working with the schools to find out what they need most and providing it for them as and when we can. We hope that one day all of the schools will be as well equipped as they are in the developed world.
Teacher Training
However, it would be unwise of us to provide all of these resources if they were just to sit in a cupboard because the teacher did not know how to use them effectively. Therefore, Teacher Training of existing staff is an important area of our work and it is a sustainable and efficient use of our resources as it has great long term benefit.
Student Sponsorship
EdUKaid’s main aim when we started our work in 2004 was to provide the means for Primary and Secondary pupils to go to school when they would otherwise be unable to do so because of the prohibitive costs. For four years we provided the transport, books, uniforms and fees for over eighty children to go to school. We have since reassessed the situation and believe that the number of school places now available and the drop in fees this has lead to means that providing individuals with these items is no longer necessary. Unfortunately the increase in school places without an adequate increase in government funding for the schools and teachers means that resources are even more stretched and we want to direct more funds and resources to the schools themselves that the pupils attend. Click here to download our welcome pack.
Volunteer Teachers
We have qualified volunteers teaching English, Mathematics and Science in Primary and Secondary schools which is an excellent way for us to support the existing schools as well as providing an amazing experience for those individuals that volunteer with us. English is the main focus of our teaching efforts for a number of reasons. It is the language of business and government in Tanzania as well as being very important for the tourism industry. The medium of teaching at Primary level is Swahili but at Secondary it is English which causes many problems as when the pupils leave primary school their English is very poor and so they are unable to learn their other subjects. Therefore, we teach English at both Primary and Secondary level in the normal classes and at after school English Clubs. For more information on volunteering for EdUKaid please click here.
School Links
We have a system which links schools in the UK with schools in the area we support in Tanzania. This enables the pupils from both countries to be able to exchange information and be able to learn about the others culture, lifestyle and difficulties. For more information on our school links please click here.
School Lunches
From the observations of our volunteers and speaking to teachers it was clear that the concentration levels of pupils as the school day wore on were considerably lower, with pupils often too tired to work and some falling asleep (not because of dull lessons from our volunteers). The reason for this is that the children often have to walk long distances to reach school and then have to do manual work at the school before a full day of lessons. Very few of the children have food at school and many do not even have food before leaving their homes in the morning. We are working with the schools and parents to ensure that the children do eat and therefore improve their concentration levels and education.
Apart from these permanent projects we continually assess what needs to be done and what we can do about it. We are looking to influence relevant government departments at all levels to develop productive changes and we also work with other non-governmental organisations. We constantly assess our work and other ways in which we can operate in the best way to use our resources to further our aims.
Newsletter
To find out more about what we have been doing recently please read our newsletter by clicking here.
