Let the school start

Gundua Secondary School in north Kenya is nearly ready to welcome its 320 pupils. The building is not yet completed, but is already seething with activity. The 150 pupils already enrolled are as enthusiastic about their new school as their teachers. And in Ex-Lewa in Kenya, they strongly believe in the future.

Gundua's colours are yellow and blue, showing the close ties with Sweden.

"My parents have a small farm. I, my brothers and sisters help out when we are not in school."

Unfortunately, too few children across the world can say ”when I’m not in school”. In Africa alone, more than 45 million children will never go to school. That highlights the importance of the UN:s Millennium Development Goal to ensure that by 2015 all children should complete a full course of primary schooling. However, it remains a remote goal in Africa, and very much so in Kenya, found in the east of the continent, on the equator, and with a population of 35 million.

Until recently there was no secondary school in Ex-Lewa open to everyone. The existing ones were boarding schools, with fees too high for most families in the area. Ex-Lewa relies on farming and as most children help their parents with the day-to-day work, boarding school is not an option even for those who can afford it. So since the start three years ago, the Gundua Foundation has worked towards starting a secondary day school with low fees. The building started during the second half of 2007, and when completed it will host 320 students. But several buildings have been completed and teaching has already started in the Gundua Secondary School. 16 year old Walter is one of the 150 pupils:

”I live eight kilometres from the school so it takes me about an hour each way. But it is definitely worth it! Gundua is without a doubt the best school in this area,” Walter says convincingly.

The Gundua School is officially inaugurated this autumn, and will offer both Gundua's 320 students, as well as the students from the nearby primary school, school lunch.

Every pupil I talk to reinforce the image that Gundua is a popular school. Patrick, a third year student, tells me that he has two brothers in the first year. He believes that if it had not been for Gundua, he and his brothers would have been forced to leave school when completing elementary school. A boarding school would have been far too expensive and the children are needed at home after school to help with the farming and other domestic chores.

Many children in the Gundua school tell similar stories about helping out at home. Dorothy, also a third year student, is one of them.

”Both my parents are dead so I live with my grand parents. They are old and can’t cope with all the daily work. But since I go to a day school I can go to school and come home and help them out in the afternoon.”

When the school bell rings, the third year students, dressed in blue school uniforms, hurry to their class rooms. Mr Louis, assistant head master and maths teacher, is waiting by the black board. On it he has written “continued, logarithms – how to use logarithms”. When the around 50 pupils are seated and have taken out their maths books, placed in paper boxes on the floor next to them, Mr Louis starts the lesson.

”Today we are turning numbers from logarithm to index and vice versa.Are we together?”, the maths teacher asks, and continues:

”Can anyone tell me what this number is?” The class answers in unison.

”Very good! Logarithm!”

Mr Louis continues the lesson by asking the students to turn the numbers on the black board to index. While the students are calculating individually he walks among the desks and stops now and then to see how the pupils are doing. Most comments are positive and full of praise. ”Very good Sarah, you have really got the hang of it”, and occasionally he has to help a student.

Mr Louis’ good mood and positive way of teaching make it easy to understand what the students at Gundua mean when they say that they have the most qualified teachers in the entire Ex-Lewa district. All students I talk to agree and the creative environment at Gundua seem to attract good teachers. Mr Frances has taught history and geography for 15 years and he says this is the best school he has worked at. ”I will stay for as long as they want me here,” he says enthusiastically.

But not very far from the bright yellow school buildings, it becomes clear that the Gundua Secondary School is a happy oasis in Kenya’s school system and that the surrounding needs are great. On the other side of a hedge, just a few hundred meters from the Gundua school, is the elementary school, Ex-Lewa Primary School. Even though they are next to each other, the difference is huge. While the Gundua school offers light rooms, the primary school’s class rooms are windowless, dark and boxy. The teachers’ room is basically made out of cardboard. The eight classes share seven teachers, hence at least one class is without a teacher.

”Most are poor in our school. Just look at that girl,” says Mr Franco, head master at Ex-Lewa Primary School, and continues:

”She is only three years old and goes to our nursery. She is an orphan has probably not had anything to eat today.”

Mr Franco turns around to look at the little girl, who appears to happily roll around in the burnt grass.

”And since our school is poor we can’t feed them during school hours,” Mr Franco continues with a sigh.

At the moment, the canteen is not yet completed, but when the school is inaugurated this autumn it will welcome students both from Gundua and the primary school near by.

But things are looking up for the Ex-Lewa Primary School. A recently signed contract with the Gundua Foundation means the elementary school will become part of the Gundua school in the near future. When the Gundua school’s canteen is completed students from the school nest door will be able to eat there. That will solve a large part of the primary school’s problem, according to Mr Franco.

“If the students are hungry it doesn’t matter how good the teaching is, they can’t absorb the knowledge,” says the head master, who welcomes the increased cooperation between the neighbouring schools.

”Look at how nice the Gundua school is. Our two shools are like mother and daughter, we can not be separated from each other when we are so close. My students will one day be Gundua’s students and therefore we should be one school,” Mr Franco says.

In closing he gestures towards the flat, fertile area surrounding the schools:

”This is the future of our country. With the possibilities offered by the Gundua school, the generation growing up now may be the generation that changes Kenya.

And that Mr Franco’s words are more that great expectations is reinforced by the optimism shared by student after student at the Gundua school:

”I’m proud to be at the Gundua school. It makes me want to change the world,” says second year student and 16 year old Betty. She adds, proudly:

“And if I want to, I can.”

Betty’s dreams for the future are shared by the Gundua school head master, mr Martin, who is teaching chemistry to the ambitious student Patrick. Mr Martin is proud of his school and his students, and he is convinced that several of them have what it takes to continue to university once they have completed their studies at the Gundua school.

By autumn the Gundua school in Ex-Lewa will be competed, ready to receive 320 pupils. So now the Gundua Foundation is looking ahead. There is already a wish list for the near-ready school; additional classrooms, a school library and a school bus! A bus would mean the possibility to make excursions and for the school’s different athletic teams to compete outside of the area.

In the long term there are greater challenges ahead for the Gundua Foundation. One idea is to start a new Gundua school, a secondary day school, in a different part of Kenya, lacking in secondary schooling. Another vision is to build and run a vocational school next to the Gundua school in Ex-Lewa, where local children can learn trades such as carpentry, brick-laying and electrical work.

Amanda Borg, project manager Gundua Foundation

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