School Baraza

This afternoon we had the first school baraza (assembly/meeting) of the year.  We started off with the sutdents singing first the national anthem and then the school song.  The assembly had several items on the agenda.  First, the headmaster and deputy headmaster both welcomed the students and teachers to the new school year and made speeches about their vision for the new year.

Next, we gave out awards for last school year: most improved in each grade, best at cleanliness, the top three students in each class, and all of last year's Form Two students who just got back their results on the national NECTA exam (34 scored division I and 3 scored division II--incredible for a new school, second out of all the schools in our district, and well above the national average!  Monduli district is now 9th in the whole country!).

And then we had the Head Prefect, Benedict, come to address the administration and teachers with the concerns and requests of the students, and went through items from the suggestion box outside the office.  Or, as I called it, The Airing of Grievances.  The students had some good suggestions and some that were really long shots.  Of course, everyone is still a bit frustrated with the new textbook system, but I'm hoping as we get things organized and work out the issues that that will get better.  The girls would really like to be allowed to braid their hair instead of shaving their heads; that got a resounding NO from the headmaster.  (Students of both genders being required to keep their heads shaved is very common here, and we often have water shortages so anything requiring longer showers etc. is probably not a good idea.)   The students would also like more field trips.  Of course, we would love for them to go on more field trips...but field trips gets expensive fast.  Their request for more physics and chemistry practicals (lab time) is already in motion; we have hired several new teachers this term, so we should be able to do more of that this year.  Overall, the meeting went pretty well, and only started late enough and then ran long enough that the students were only about half an hour late for the normal supper time.  (Yes, I'm being rather sarcastic.  Much better than the teachers' meeting the Saturday before classes started--it was scheduled for 9-11:30 am, but actually ran from 11:15 am to 3 pm...).

Mr. Oscar (in the middle), my co-English teacher, with the top students: Regarn, Benedict, Shuaka, Pamela, Moureen, and Mariam.  

Top students for the 2018 School Year:
Form 2: Benedict (who is also the Head Prefect)
Form 1: Shuaka
Form 3: Pamela (the eldest daughter of one of the main families in the Monduli church).