Brief historical background of the institution
Altaawon Education center, Korogocho Altaawon education center is an educational safe haven for the poor child it is located in korogocho slum, Nairobi Kenya. Kenya being a developing country has a high rate of poverty; in 2015 it was ranked sixth among the Sub-Saharan African countries with a huge number of its population living in poverty. Three years later the rate of poverty in Kenya has only gone down by ten percent meaning the is a lot more Kenya’s need to unity and do so as to make this beautiful land of ours a better place.
Institutions like Altaawon education center are working towards further reducing the rate of poverty by empowering and educating poor and orphaned kids in Korogocho slum. The center was founded back in 2002 by the Altaawon Islamic youth organization as a community service project. It is registered by the ministry of Education, Youth sports and gender service. Altaawon educational center which was previously a group study project currently has a population of four hundred and fifty pupils and twenty six teaching and non-teaching stuff. The schools existence relays on community support, ministry of education, well-wishers and friends.
Your feelings and impression about the site
The principle Mr. Obanda Mohammed, teachers and the students are really friendly and welcoming, I enjoyed my first days. I especially taught science in class four and five. I have spent at Altaawon Education center. Despite loving the place, I experienced a bit of shock too;
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- seeing the children play on uneven playground with deflated footballs
- Seeing the students not having money for lunch and they stay hungry
Finding out how much the school fee is and knowing that some students still cannot afford - The pupils sharing their stories of how coming to school is a struggle because some of their parents believe education is bad, and it’s not of use.
- Having to lend the students papers to write on because they lacked books
- Having to use one textbook in a class of 12
These are some of the sad and shocking experiences and stories I discovered it has taught me not to take any single thing for granted. Despite this problems and more this pupils still wake up daily come to school and work as hard as their environment can allow them to.
Challenges for the institution
Untrained teachers
A high percentage of the pupils do not perform that well due to being taught by untrained teachers since this is what the center can manage. But it’s better half a loaf than none.
Lack of funds to purchase reading materials
You will find students sharing pencils, rulers among other educational materials which I believe is disruptive and in convincing
Insufficient concentration
Some students come with smaller siblings to class, which is not only distracting to the student in question but the whole class. This will affect the student concentration level and performance in class.
Lack of confidents
I noticed that most of these students do not believe in themselves, they have very low level of confidence which interns affects their performance in school.
Some of this pupils end up dropping out due to lack of school fees. During the days leading to the drop out the affected students pay minimal or no concentration in class.
Discontinuity after primary hence low moral
Some of the pupils don’t see the need of working hard or paying attention in class because they are lucky to have such an affordable school like Altaawon. On completion of their primary school most of the Altaawon students are uncertain of continuity of education.
Altaawoon education center challenges
Lack of teachers
Seeing as the institution depends mainly on the support of well-wishers and volunteers, during some school terms they don’t get enough volunteers and well-wishers. This strains the few employed teachers and volunteers hence lower quality output compared to if the institution could afford to sustain the required number of teachers.
Untrained teachers
The center cannot afford to acquire the number of teachers needed to sustain the four hundred and fifty pupils hence why they rely on these volunteers. Most of these volunteers are not trained teachers and may not be able to skillfully tap into the potential of the pupils they interact with.
Lack of recognition as an examination center
Due to the inadequate resources, Altaawon is not recognized as an examination center by the government. This makes it hard for the school to tract its performance and improvement since the students register and do the KCPE examination in other centers.
Lack of resources
The resources at the school don’t match the population of the pupils. Simple things like a blackboard rubber are shared among classes. Examination papers are also shared and used interns among schools in Korogocho.
Students unable to pay school fees (running the school is difficult)
Some of the students are unable to pay school fees (five hundred Kenya shillings per month), the school relies on this little money to sustain itself hence failure of the students to pay school fees makes running the school even harder.
What you expect to do for the institution to improve the challenges
I don’t just do the mainstream teaching I also engage the class four and eight’s (the classes am currently teaching) in motivational talks. I am trying to make them see that anyone can do anything no matter where they come from as long as they set their minds to it. I plan on continuing with the motivational talks.
I also plan to make time and expand to other classes.
Currently the head teacher, some of the members of the Altaawon Islamic youth group and I are planning a fundraising activity and brainstorming on other activities to take part in that will help grow the school and the community too.
Encourage and tell my friends that haven’t taken the community service course to consider volunteering at Altaawon education center.
Using my social media I want to tell my story how working at Altaawon education center has changed my life, hoping to encourage more people volunteer and give back not only in Altaawon but help other institutions and people overcome their challenges.
