Saint Frank's

Most of my students. Standing infront of the "chalkboard."

In the mornings, I teach class 5/6 at St. Frank's Educational Complex. My students range in age from 11 to 14. So far my biggest class has been 6 students. They are a fun group of motivated learners - definitely the best kind of students to have. I've been teaching English, but the students really want to learn science. I am planning some fun hands on science experiments... 

The school is unlike any school I have ever seen. The last time I was in Kenya, I was on an educational psychology field study and we visited all kinds of schools. St. Frank's is by far the poorest school I have ever seen.

The unrenovated side of the school

In Kenya, all students pay school fees and wear uniforms. From what I have gathered, recently some schools are doing away with the mandatory fees for primary school. But, the uniforms are non-negotiable and students will get turned away if they can't afford the tuition or the uniforms. Students will wear uniforms until they are literally torn beyond wear. At St. Franks, because it is considered a private school, the uniform is not heavily enforced. So even the poorest children can attend. However, there are major drawbacks to the St. Franks model even though it sounds great at first. Who would want to allow any interested child into a school?! 

Because St. Frank's is not a government school, it cannot receive funding from the government. It also means that they don't get qualified applicants to fill the teaching positions. The students don't
pay any fees or if they do, they pay very minimal fees which also makes it hard to recruit and retain
teachers. There are 2 paid teachers in the school, both of those teachers teach in the baby class/preschool. Francis, the founder and headmaster, then bounces from room to room through out the day to teach the rest of the students. The school relies heavily on volunteers to fill in the gaps in the teaching. Some times they are Kenyan volunteers but most of the volunteer teachers come from abroad and stay for a short time. As you can imagine, all of these things make learning very hard for the students.

Francis's goal is to continue growing the school and to get western sponsors to pay the school fees and provide the uniforms for the students. He would like to help grow the school so that it can become recognized by the government. Past volunteers have been helping with the infrastructure of the school and we (the last 2 volunteers and the current 3) just applied for a grant from IVHQ to build the school a library. Cross your finger for us! 

This is definitely a learning experience for me. I'm trying to make the teaching and learning in my classroom meaningful even if it is only for 6 weeks. More to come.